


What Makes You Human

by TinyTeapot (DeliciousDanish)



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Alternate Universe - Small Town, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Halloween, I love vampire and werewolf tropes, M/M, Spicy situations but no smut, this is very self indulgent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:13:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 28,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27323299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DeliciousDanish/pseuds/TinyTeapot
Summary: Spam Ad Descriptions for this fic:Doctors HATE him. How Akira keeps his youthful glow!A lonely werewolf and a depressed vampire strike up an unlikely friendship. What happens next will SHOCK you.Blood Moon Eclipses! The weather phenomenon changing the way werewolves transform! Click for more info!How to avoid Halloween heartbreak in 4 easy steps!(Bad description, better fic.)
Relationships: Amamiya Ren/Sakamoto Ryuji, Kurusu Akira/Sakamoto Ryuji, Persona 5 Protagonist/Sakamoto Ryuji
Comments: 18
Kudos: 96





	1. The Wolf Who Wanders

**Author's Note:**

> Hello again! It's me! Back with ANOTHER Pegoryu fic. Because I guess I don't write anything else. 
> 
> I love werewolf and vampire AUs. They're cheesy, dramatic, angsty and ripe with romance. I haven't been having a very good couple of weeks, so I wanted to write something fun for Halloween to cheer myself up. This is completely and utterly self-indulgent and it might not be everyone's cup of tea, but it's sure as hell mine! 
> 
> I have no idea where in the world this fic is supposed to be set. It's just a random stereotypical small town in the middle of Whoknowswhere, 'Merica. Small town settings are, to me, ideal settings for vampire and werewolf shenanigans. So that's all I have to say about that! 
> 
> This fic finally has a real title now!

A shrill animal cry cuts through the forest before dawn.  
  
Ryuji writhes as his bones crack and shatter, shortening and reforming. His teeth become dull and his claws become rounded. His fur disappears, leaving him naked on the forest floor. Shivering against the sudden chill he rests for a moment, relearning how it feels to be human.  
  
“I brought you some clothes,” A familiar voice from up above in a tree. Red eyes catch the light as Akira begins his descent. He comes face first, crawling along the trunk in a way that's anything but mortal. The autumn leaves hardly stir as he drops next to Ryuji.  
  
Flexing his fingers, Ryuji flashes his odd companion a weak smile, “Thanks, man.”  
  
“How was last night's hunt?” Akira wonders. “I heard you howling.”  
  
“Oh yeah? What makes you so sure it was me? There are a few wolf packs that come up here at the end of summer.”  
  
“I know the sound of your voice,” Akira says, almost like he's arguing that point. He flashes his fangs as he inquires again, “The hunt?”  
  
“It went well. Still got some rabbit fur stuck in my teeth though,” Ryuji runs his tongue over them. They feel odd inside his mouth, so flat compared to his werewolf fangs. “Gonna start with a bath before I get dressed. Come with me to the lake.”  
  
Ryuji rises to his feet, as unsteady as a newborn fawn. Staggering he reaches out with a hand to catch himself against a large pine trunk. Akira hovers beside him but doesn't reach out to help. It's a pride thing, Ryuji hates the weaknesses of his human body, especially after a shift.  
  
“I'm good,” Ryuji assures. Taking a few more steps he finds his balance and begins walking bare-assed through the woods. At one time it might have embarrassed him to do that in front of Akira but now it feels almost natural. They've seen enough over the past two years that being without feels almost more normal. That, and he likes the occasional lengthy stares that Akira gives his body.  
  
“How long was I wolfed-out this time?” Ryuji wonders, stepping nimbly over a felled aspen trunk.  
  
“Two weeks,” Akira tells him after a few brief moments of silence. “A day and a half longer than last month.”  
  
“Damn. For me, it felt like a couple of hours,” Ryuji glances up at the sky. The moon is nothing more than a thin leftward facing crescent, fourteen days exactly. His condition is worsening. With every passing full moon, his transformations last longer. Someday he might not turn back into a human at all, forever trapped in the body of a wolfish nightmare. Ryuji tries not to think about it but it's always there at the back of his mind.  
  
Four faded scars run the length of his right thigh. Ryuji positions his fingers over them. They run in a twisted curve from the top of his knee to the base of his hipbone. It's been eight years since that fateful night, a summer camping trip that ended in horror. The news called it a devastating tragedy, a young boy of sixteen attacked and eaten by a large wild animal.  
  
In a sick twist of fate, Ryuji survived, but he was quick to realize that he wasn't the same. His newfound werewolfism kept him bound to the forest, for fear he might hurt someone. Or worse, pass the curse.  
  
The first few years were the hardest. Ryuji had been alone then and the only thing that mattered was survival. Anger over the life he had lost consumed him, purging him of his humanity. Giving in to the monster was easier than facing his grief and loss. It kept him alive for five long and lonely years.  
  
Then he met Akira, and like the rising sun after a full moon, he changed Ryuji back into a human. Ironic, considering that Akira is anything but.  
  
A centuries-old vampire, Akira was cast out of his coven for having 'radical' ideas. He had chosen to live free of human blood, seeking to remove himself from his corpse littered past. The two met by pure accident during one of Ryuji's hunts. The vampire had almost ended up a meal, narrowly escaping. Utterly fascinated by the werewolf's moon controlled lifestyle, Akira had watched him for weeks before approaching. And if that wasn't odd enough, he came to Ryuji to suggest an unusual arrangement. If Ryuji would become his blood donor, Akira would share his knowledge of the 'supernatural world' and assist in trying to find a cure. Ryuji had agreed, desperate to be free of his lycanthropic curse. Even if that meant teaming up with a vampire. 

Two and a half years have gone by since then.  
  
“What did you do while I was gone?” Leaves and twigs crunch and snap under Ryuji's feet as he strolls. He folds his hands together at the back of his head, turning to glance over his shoulder at Akira. The vampire's bright red eyes snap up to meet his and Ryuji smirks. It's always a good boost to the ego when he catches Akira staring so intently at his backside.  
  
“I went up the mountain,” Akira says. Ryuji frowns but doesn't immediately respond.  
  
Pausing at the edge of the treeline, Ryuji's yellow eyes scan the shore for danger. Dark black waters loom before him, covered over by a thick layer of steamy fog. Both Ryuji and Akira stand statue-still, checking the scents in the air. Checking for humans more specifically. It's rare that they travel this deep into the woods but it's happened before. It would be foolhardy to discount the possibility, literal lives are on the line.  
  
The lake is a popular morning destination for all the early risers of the animal kingdom. There are a few ducks paddling out over the water. Deer, though they're all the way on the opposite shore. Voles and mice digging in the mud, several songbirds bathing in the shallows, but no humans. Ryuji inhales one last time.  
  
He can smell Akira, though that's a given due to their proximity. Something about it makes Ryuji's mouth water, the same way it does with prey. Like there's a voice whispering to him to 'come and take a bite'. If asked to describe the scent, he might say oak wood and flowers, a bit of ash. Today there's also a fresh overlay of intermingling spices, of incense. Which can only mean...  
  
“You went to see the witch,” Ryuji guesses. The right corner of Akira's mouth lifts, a hint of a smile.  
  
“I did,” he confirms, stepping free of their hiding place. “Come out. It's safe.”  
  
“Yeah,” Ryuji agrees, breath fogging in the air as he moves to follow. “Did she tell you anything useful this time?”  
  
“Only what we had been suspecting. This year a blood moon falls on Halloween night.”  
  
“For real?!” Ryuji says, a bit too loudly. He startles a pair of foxes. They tear off into the woods as he steps down to the water's edge. He dips a toe in to test the temperature. At this time of year, the lake is usually warmer than the air and today is no exception. Ryuji eagerly wades out until he's sunk in up to his chest.  
  
A lunar eclipse, also known as a blood moon. It's the one night where it's impossible for Ryuji to transform. The one night he's explicitly human. Ironic, considering the holiday.  
  
“I can't wait to show you around,” Ryuji sighs, referring to the plans they made almost a year ago. If ever a blood moon came up, the two of them would go down to visit Ryuji's hometown. The fact that it falls on Halloween is a convenience. For one night they can walk among the humans, with no risk of Ryuji passing on his 'curse' to anyone else. Akira's appearance won't be an issue either. He can blend in with all the costumes.  
  
It's not completely without risks. Interactions with humans will be strictly forbidden. Akira's come a long way with his bloodlust but there are still kinks to work out. Ryuji's face is fairly well known among the public, featured on missing-persons posters. Until he became better known as the kid that got eaten.  
  
Either way, it might be Ryuji's only chance. The next blood moon is two years away. By that point, he'll likely be...  
  
“What will you do after I finally become a full-time werewolf?” Ryuji asks, turning himself inside the water to face Akira. He's surprised to see the other man undressing, intending to join him in the 'bath'.  
  
Akira is... Attractive. Attractive in a way Ryuji didn't think another man could be. As a human he had never found other men of interest, but now? Now he's certain that he likes the way Akira's shoulder muscles move and flex as he pulls his shirt off over his head. Loves the strength in Akira's back, or the curve of his ass. His thighs... Ryuji could write an essay. They're physically close in age too. Akira became a vampire at twenty-four and Ryuji stopped aging over a year ago. Right after his twenty-third birthday.  
  
“I thought vampires couldn't cross water,” Ryuji remarks as Akira wades out towards him.  
  
“Running water,” Akira corrects around a flash of his teeth. “And it's a myth.”  
  
“Well, I never know with you! Some things are true and other things are wrong.”  
  
“Let me wash your back for you,” Akira suggests, changing the topic and earning a raised eyebrow from Ryuji. “Or not.”  
  
“It's fine, I'm surprised,” Ryuji turns to face the opposite direction. “I guess if you're gonna be feedin' off me you'd at least want me clean. Right?”  
  
Akira puffs out a soft breath of laughter, “It's something like that.”  
  
Ryuji directs his attention towards the brightening horizon. Akira's fingers are cold against his back. It's a sharp contrast to the pleasant temperature of the water. Ryuji closes his eyes and relaxes into the attention.  
  
“It's peaceful,” he mumbles, half to himself, half to Akira. Songbirds begin to rouse their choirs, singing over a backdrop of the lake's gentle lapping. Akira's hands move up into Ryuji's hair, combing small tangles out of it. It's the sort of thing a lover might do but the two of them don't have that kind of relationship. “We should get home.”  
  
Akira's voice is soft as he insists, “Let's wait a few more minutes.”  
  
Ryuji can't find a reason to protest.  
  
 *** * ***  
  
Ryuji's 'home' is an abandoned camper trailer that he took off of the back of an old farming property. It had taken him three full mooned nights to pull it far enough into the woods for it to not be missed. Then another six months to fix it up. It's not glamorous, but it's clean and protected from the elements. He's got clean water and electricity when he feels like running the generator. Most of the time he's content without it, his eyes see well enough in the dark.  
  
He and Akira hole up in there during the daytime when Akira's skin and eyes are sensitive to sunlight. It isn't true about vampires bursting into flames but Akira sunburns worse than anything Ryuji's ever seen. The two of them are both night owls anyway, so making the switch was almost effortless.  
  
Ryuji stands over the kitchen sink, scrubbing mint leaves over his teeth to clean them. He might be a werewolf but that doesn't mean he has to give up human ideals, like good dental hygiene. He's not able to go into town for things like toothpaste and other toiletries. Stealing them from unattended campsites is always an option but he tries to save his raids for bigger items. The mint leaves at least give him that 'fresh toothpaste' taste.  
  
Akira, on the other hand, doesn't seem to have need of much of anything. He doesn't eat, so there's no risk of decay from unbrushed teeth. His hair doesn't grow, facial or otherwise, so there's no need to invest in things like razors or brushes. Even things like bathing and washing his clothes seem to be more for show than functionality.  
  
There is just one single thing that he can't go without.  
  
“Alright, let's do this,” Ryuji rinses his mouth out and moves towards the back of the camper. Akira's waiting for him on the bed, patient as a saint. “What's the longest you've been able to go without blood?”  
  
Akira thinks for a moment, his right fang worrying his bottom lip, “Two months? I was somewhere in France. Living underground with a small coven. It was a pretty bad time to be a vampire, the church was all fired up about hunting us down.”  
  
“Fuck.”  
  
“Yes.”  
  
Ryuji moves up onto the bed and sits in front of Akira with his legs crossed, “I'm ready when you are.”  
  
With a tense sort of hesitation, Akira crawls over to sit in his lap. The contact causes Ryuji's face to go slack and a sensation of warmth lights up inside his chest. It leaves him breathless like he's swallowed a burning candle. Akira's lips brush over the pulse point inside his neck. Ryuji's body goes rigid. He's not anticipating the bite so much as his body's reaction to it.  
  
Akira assures him that it's a perfectly normal reaction. Something about venom and arousal of the body and-  
  
“Ouch,” Ryuji hisses, flinching. Akira bites with more force than usual, with more force than is necessary. He makes a soft noise that sounds something like the syllables for 'I'm sorry'. “It's fine, man. I should be apologizin'. I made you wait so long to feed.”  
  
Ryuji shuts his eyes to focus on his breathing, a steady pattern of deep inhales and exhales. It's almost meditative. Akira's fingers curl around his wrist, thumb pressing against the vein at the base of his palm. In this way he keeps an eye on Ryuji's pulse, ensuring that he doesn't take too much or put an extra strain on his body.  
  
“Take what you need,” Ryuji insists, though his mind has started to swim. He has a vague notion of nausea, though it's nothing he hasn't experienced before. It's a minor annoyance, like bad music in an elevator. Ryuji sets his free hand on the back of Akira's head to hold him in place as he lays back on the mattress. He pulls the vampire along with him but Akira's too busy feeding to notice.  
  
He's kind of heavy but that's fine.  
  
Ryuji's becoming hyper-aware of his body. He's noticing things on a simpler scale, like how his heart feels inside his chest. It plays a steady beat that resembles a song he once heard. Or how much effort it takes to move his eyes. His vision starts to fade around the edges. Even his fingertips are tingling, no, vibrating. Ryuji closes his eyes, exhausted from two weeks as a wolf, now suddenly human again.  
  
Man. Beast. _Monster._ Ryuji wishes the universe would make up its mind already.  
  
Akira withdraws and sits up, intending to move away. Ryuji definitely doesn't want that. He catches hold of Akira's shoulders to stop him.  
  
“Lay back down,” Ryuji insists. His voice sounds like it's coming from a million miles away instead of from inside his throat. That's weird. “Let's sleep like this.”  
  
“...You're joking, right?” Akira's head cocks to the side. The sun is bright outside the windows. It filters in despite the 'blackout' curtains that Ryuji hung. There's a pen-sized hole in one of them. The moths must have gotten to it.  
  
“I'm serious. Lay down.”  
  
“Only until you fall asleep.”  
  
“'kay,” Ryuji's eyes begin to droop as Akira settles back down on top of him. He rests his head up under Ryuji's chin and sighs, a tiny exhale of air. Akira doesn't need to breathe but he spends a lot of time sighing. He doesn't need to sleep either but he spends a lot of time looking weary. As if his body was at the point of extreme exhaustion right before he turned into a vampire. He'll forever be wearing a pair of dark-circled eyes.  
  
That's Ryuji's last coherent thought before he drifts off, sailing into an unrelated dream.  
  
 *** * *  
  
** Akira sits on top of the trailer to watch the sun go down. Ryuji is still asleep, and likely will be for a while longer. Every time he returns from a long session spent as a wolf it takes days to regain his energy. Akira would be lying to himself if he said it didn't worry him. He doesn't want to lose the only relationship he has.  
  
And yet he knows it's inevitable.  
  
The witch of the forest, Takemi, had told him as much the night before.  
  
“You will lose him, be it through a cure or the deepening of his curse. It's impossible for the two of you to stay together.”  
  
Even before she had said the words, Akira had suspected the truth of them. Werewolves, vampires, all the dark creatures of the world live by a single unchanging fact. No matter how hard they try, or how much they want it, they can never live the way humans do. They can never settle down and exist in peace. Something will always come along to drive them back into the shadows.  
  
This happy life he shares with Ryuji will someday come to an end.  
  
There's no use dwelling on it. Akira jumps down, deciding to get an early start on the evening 'chores'. Despite his status as a werewolf, when Ryuji isn't under the effects of the full moon he's very nearly human. He can't hunt and chase down food, so he spends a lot of time setting up snares and laying down nets in the river. All of his drinking water has to be hauled up to the camper and boiled. Then filtered through cloths to strain out impurities and bacteria. It's important to gather as much as possible before winter sets in. The seasons won't wait for Ryuji to recover, so Akira will pitch in where he can.  
  
“Water tanks,” he mumbles, verbally checking off a mental list. Akira goes around to the back of the camper. There is a removable side panel there, under which two large tanks are inset into a place below the kitchen. Akira grabs a pair of large plastic buckets from beside the tanks. On his way to the river for water, he can check the snares and fishnets.  
  
Akira heads westward into the forest, strolling comfortably through the darkness. Walking barefoot, he can feel the future chill of frost in the earth, it's certain to be a long and barren winter. Even the animals seem to know it, rushing about in the underbrush as they search for food. It's all small things, squirrels and rats, animals that are 'explicitly off-limits' as food items. There's a skunk too. Surely more of a meal than the rats would be, but Ryuji won't be happy with him if he brings one of those back with him.  
  
The snares come up empty but as luck would have it, the river traps have caught three good-sized basses. While one bucket fills under a small waterfall, the other one is quickly stocked with a few inches of water and the fish. Akira stares down at them as they fight for space inside the tight cylindrical quarters. As a human, fish had been a favorite meal for him. His father had worked down on the local docks as a port master. He would often bring home fish given to him or purchased off the boats. Sadly, after so many years, Akira can longer recall the flavor.  
  
He wonders if the same thing happens with different kinds of blood. If he stops drinking from Ryuji, moves on to something else, will he forget the taste? How many years will it take? Two? Ten? A century? Werewolf blood is decidedly different from human blood, and not the best he's ever had, but he's grown accustomed to it. He's survived on nothing else for the past two years with no obvious ill side effects. His mind is sharp and his body as strong as it's ever been. However, there is a distinct feeling of dependency that's begun to form over the last several months. Though he thinks that might have more to do with his emotions than his body's needs.  
  
The first time he realized he was in love with Ryuji was back in February, a few days shy of Valentine's Day. The two of them had been enjoying an unusually warm spring evening. They had decided to take a walk through the woods, hiking aimlessly through the darkness. Akira had been pointing out different species of wildflowers or identifying bird songs when he caught Ryuji staring. It was not at the freshly opened flowers, but at him. There was a look in his yellow eyes that Akira had never seen before. As if there was nothing in the world the werewolf could possibly have wanted more than him. And Akira's own mind and body had, for the briefest of moments, called out for the same thing.  
  
 _I wish we could be like this always,_ Akira had thought, knowing even then that it was an impossibility.  
  
Feelings he had long tried to bury came rushing to the surface. He didn't resist when Ryuji pressed him against the trunk of a large pine, nor when he kissed him. From there the rest of the evening flowed like a dream, both of them comfortable enough to touch and be touched. They held hands as they sat out by the lake, telling stories and laughing. If it had been summer they might have gone swimming. Instead, they laid bare on the shore with their feet in the water, occasionally bumping ankles. They kissed again, and again until Akira felt as though his pointless lungs had run out of breath. Their hands memorized the shape of each other's body. They tangled together as if they could somehow meld into one being. And although nothing explicitly sexual had occurred, Akira could admit it was the most intimate he had ever been with someone. Like maybe he had become a little more human.  
  
A full moon rose in the sky on the following night, a transformation that lasted six days. When Ryuji returned, neither of them spoke of what had occurred between them.  
  
Sometimes Akira wonders if he imagined it. Like his mind wants to connect with Ryuji's so bad that it had to manufacture a pleasant memory. It wouldn't surprise him. Weirder things have happened since he entered into his second life as a vampire. He can't sleep, so he can't dream, but his body does sometimes go into a meditative state. Almost like a survival instinct to keep his mind from going mad from sheer boredom.  
  
It's sobering when he thinks about how he's nothing like the struggling fish in the bucket. He'll never be mortal again. He doesn't eat the way they do, he doesn't breathe the way they do, by all rights he shouldn't exist at all. Even Ryuji, cursed as he is by the phases of the moon, is still a living being. His heart still beats inside his chest, and as long as a possibility of a cure exists, so does the chance that he can return to living a normal life. He'll live, grow old, and someday die. It's a luxury that Akira will never know.  
  
Bound his immortality, he'll continue moving forward until all of Earth's years have passed him by.  
  
 *** * *  
  
** Ryuji wakes alone, though that's not unusual. Akira can only handle so much 'sleeping' before he gets bored and has to get up to find something to do. So Ryuji takes his time getting out of bed, enjoying the ability to lounge in his cocoon of warm blankets. He watches the shadows on the walls shift as late evening turns into nighttime. He gets up once the sun has completely set.  
  
Akira isn't around the yard either. Ryuji figures he went out on one of his bird-watching hikes. To make himself feel useful, Ryuji gets to work on getting a campfire going. His stomach growls as he breaks apart some dried branches, wishing they were food instead of wood. He's always hungry after a shift.  
  
After scraping together his kindling, he smacks two pieces of flint together to ignite it. This time of year there's no shortage of dried sticks and leaves. It makes this part of his daily routine a bit easier.  
  
He tosses in a few extra logs in from off of the woodpile. For once, it's fully stocked, thanks to Akira. For some odd reason, he got into a wood chopping mood and spent an entire week downing a fair-sized spruce. He then hauled it back home and cut it all up. Ryuji keeps meaning to ask him why he did it but he's a little afraid of what the answer will be.  
  
As he pulls the tarp down over the woodpile his stomach gives another pitiful gurgle. Right as Ryuji thinks he should go out to check the snares, Akira appears from the within forest. He's shirtless, covered all over by patches of sap and dirt. In his arms are the water buckets, one filled to the brim while the other-  
  
“You found some fish!” Ryuji exclaims, rushing over to assess the catch. At the closer proximity, he notices a number of thin red scratches along Akira's torso and arms. They're healing, likely to be gone within the hour, but fresh enough for him to take notice. “Whoa. What the hell happened? Get in a fight with a chipmunk or somethin'?”  
  
“No,” Akira says with a wide smirk. At his hip is his shirt, tied up in a little bundle and weighted against his thigh. He pulls the fabric free and opens it up for Ryuji to look inside. “On the walk back I found a whole bunch of wild grapes.”  
  
“This late in the season?! No effin' way!”  
  
“I brought back as much as I could. We should go back in the morning and get some more.”  
  
“Hell yeah, it's a date,” Ryuji gleefully collects the grapes, pulling a few out to pop into his mouth. “They're good. Sweeter than I expected.”  
  
“Should we make wine out of them?” Akira wonders, somewhat sheepishly. The last time they had attempted it, the resulting brew had turned out stronger than expected. Ryuji, a lightweight in general, became drunk within minutes of test tasting the concoction. Akira was quick to join him, buzzed off the alcohol running through the werewolf's veins. Ryuji smiles at the memory. Akira is pretty serious, but that night he had shown a completely different side to himself. It would be a missed opportunity not to see it again.  
  
“Definitely.”  
  
The two men carry their haul over to the campfire. While Akira filets the fish, Ryuji sets up the grilling rack, a handy little tool he nicked off some backpackers. Most of his cookware was acquired in that way. Although it's not something he's proud of, over the years he's built up quite the collection. There's not much he can add to the meal in the way of spices and herbs are limited to what Ryuji's been able to pick and dry. He at the very least is in no short supply of salt, boiled out of water taken from a nearby brine spring. The mineral is good for everything, from cooking to preserving meat. He would never have survived his pre-camper days without it.  
  
“How do you know so much about survival?” Akira asks him, watching as Ryuji grinds up a mixture of salt, sage, and a few sprigs of mint. He presses them between two flat rocks to combine them.  
  
“Oh that,” Ryuji pauses his rock grinding. “That's what got me into this mess in the first place, actually. See, I was like eight or nine when my mom made me join up with the local scouts club.”  
  
“Scouts? Like boy scouts?”  
  
“Er, kinda. It was this small locally-run operation. Co-ed, so it was a mix of boys 'n girls. That's how I met Ann and Shiho, we were all in a troop together.”  
  
“And they taught you survival techniques?” Akira raises his right eyebrow. “Did they give you badges?”  
  
“Of course they did. What the hell kind of scouts would they be if they didn't?” Ryuji says around a bubble of soft laughter. “I actually made it all the way to Grizzly Scout level. That was the last rank you could get to. Aimed for the sixteen and up crowd. Somethin' to keep the high schoolers out of trouble. My mom wouldn't let me quit until I could come up with a better reason than 'it's lame'. That's when they start teaching you the real hardcore stuff, survival-type techniques. That shit's ironic to look back on now, if I hadn't had all those classes I would have died a long time ago.”  
  
“I'm glad that wasn't the case,” Akira says quietly, red eyes flicking up to meet Ryuji's yellow ones. “I'm lucky to have met you.”  
  
There's a deep tone of affection in his voice and the sound of it causes Ryuji's heart to skip several beats. It leaves him tongue-tied and breathless. He struggles to come up with a proper reply. Tender words are his literal Achilles heel and nothing ever comes out sounding the way he wishes. Akira is so good at spinning words together. Even a simple statement sounds so much better when he's the one who's saying it. Ryuji wishes he could be as sincere, could say something bold like, “I'm the lucky one, having met you.”  
  
Instead, he goes with, “Hell yeah, man. We make a good team.”  
  
If it's a let down to Akira, he doesn't show it, content to continue filleting the final fish. He uses his claws to make precise cuts that separate the flesh from the bone. The bass' mouth hangs open in a silent scream, it's eyes wide and dead, staring up at Ryuji. Somehow he knows how the poor thing feels. He wishes someone could come and gut him too, anything to stop him from feeling like so much of an idiot.  
  
“You said the scouts were the reason for your werewolfism,” Akira prompts Ryuji to continue. “How so?”  
  
“Oh that,” Ryuji scrapes his seasoning mixture off the rocks and into a pan. “When I started Grizzly Scouts we got this new troop leader, this absolute asshole named Kamoshida. He used to push everyone around, was real physically violent. Made all the girls uncomfortable too. Ann and Shiho wanted to quit. I uh, didn't wanna be alone though, so they stayed for me. For one final troop camping trip.”  
  
“The trip where you were attacked.”  
  
“Exactly,” Ryuji stares into the flames of the campfire until green and white spots start to cloud his vision. “Sometimes I think Kamoshida was behind it all, like he _planned_ for somethin' bad to happen to me. He and I never got along, I was always up in his face, and he was always picking fights 'n looking down on me. Made some shitty comments about my mom a few times and that really pissed me off.”  
  
“Did you ever think about revenge?” Akira asks.  
  
“I did at first, and sometimes it pops up inside my brain again. Wouldn't do any good though, it wouldn't change what I am.”  
  
“No,” Akira agrees, “It wouldn't.”  
  
“Besides, it's crazy to think that he's the reason I was attacked. He's too stupid to think somethin' like that up,” Ryuji says. He takes the first couple of fillets and lays them down inside the pan, listening to them sizzle. “It's weird that the whole me bein' a scout thing never came up in conversation before now. We've been out here for two years.”  
  
Akira's lips draw into a thin line, “It's not my habit to ask personal questions about your past.”  
  
“Why not? It's not like it's some big secret.”  
  
“You mean... Like mine.”  
  
“No,” Ryuji is quick to correct, “I trust you, so it ain't a big deal talkin' about that kind of stuff. If there's ever anything you want to know, just ask me. Okay?”  
  
“I'll try,” Akira agrees. One side of his mouth twitches, like he's trying to ward off a smile.  
  
“After dinner, let's get started on the wine,” Ryuji suggests, trying to lighten the mood. “The sooner we get it started, the sooner I can drink it. Maybe we can even take a little taste test before we go out on Halloween.”  
  
That time Akira does smile, a smug flash of teeth and fangs, “Count me in.”  
  
 *** * ***  
  
The next few weeks pass in a blur. Ryuji and Akira are busy prepping, not only for their Halloween night excursion but the winter that lays beyond it. They spend days foraging for late-season fruits and wild vegetables. Ryuji's herb drying rack overflows with tightly tied bundles, a hardy stock to last the cold months. The snares and fishing nets catch enough excess to go into the newly built meat smoker. Water is boiled, purified, and put in the tanks, filling them to the top for the first time in months. They pile leaves and other materials in around them to insulate against freezing.  
  
The day-to-day grind becomes so methodical that it's almost a shock when the eve before Halloween arrives. Had Ryuji's body not been a literal lunar calendar, they might have missed the holiday completely. It's impossible for him to resist the heavy pull of the moon.  
  
“I've noticed you seem calmer,” Akira remarks that night at dinner.  
  
Ryuji tears his eyes off his meal long enough to ask, “Whatchu mean?”  
  
“The two or three days leading up to your shift you get... Antsy.”  
  
“Oh,” Ryuji swallows a too-large bite of pheasant. It goes down a bit wrong, and he has to struggle to get his next set of words out. “Oh yeah, that.”  
  
“Yes, that,” Akira echoes in a flat tone. “You haven't noticed any difference?”  
  
“I have. I just wasn't sure if I was imaginin' it.”  
  
“Though, it could be the wine.”  
  
“It effin' could be,” Ryuji agrees, eyes trailing towards the shimmery red liquid. It is syrupy sweet, alcoholic only in the barest of ways, but he knows better than to push it. He doesn't want to spend Halloween trying to recover from a hangover. “It's crazy that my dad drank alcohol like it was water but I can barely handle the girly stuff.”  
  
“I doubt alcohol tolerance is hereditary,” Akira says in a low and careful tone. It's mean to be polite, skirting around an uncomfortable topic of conversation.  
  
“I think I got the short end of the stick.”  
  
“You want to drink that badly?”  
  
“Sorta,” Ryuji says. “My brain is always busy, like there's a million little Ryuji's runnin' around inside it. They're all trying to talk at once. You followin' me?”  
  
“I am,” Akira's staring at him, eyes nearly the same deep red as the wine. Ryuji found them unnerving in the beginning but now? Now they're beautiful, especially the way they glow in the firelight. Dammit, Ryuji let himself get distracted. It proves his point if nothing else.  
  
“When I drink, some of them shut up. I'd probably be an alcoholic if my body could handle it.”  
  
“Must be your own biological fail-safe.”  
  
“It's annoyin',” Ryuji sighs, checking the wine level inside his cup. Almost finished. “You should feed again before we go out tomorrow night. Just in case.”  
  
“You're trying to get me drunk,” Akira accuses.  
  
Ryuji grins widely, “I'm not, man. I swear.”  
  
“Then let's go,” Akira cocks his head towards the camper as he stands up. “I agree, we shouldn't take any chances.”  
  
Ryuji all but springs to his feet, “Hell yeah, gotta be all safe 'n shit, right?”  
  
Nothing exciting happens. Akira feeds and then Ryuji goes to sleep, but his dreams hint at all the possibilities of what could have happened... If only he had drunk a bit more wine.  
  
 *** * ***  
  
Their Halloween adventure begins with a disagreement.  
  
“You are _not_ wearing that,” Ryuji exclaims as Akira emerges from the camper in his full vampire gear. Or what he considers vampire gear, as it matches most of the movies and books he's digested on the subject. They're the clothes Akira was wearing the night the two of them met, old and from a century-long past.  
  
“This is my costume,” Akira counters, turning a full circle so that Ryuji can see the entire thing. Tight fitted black pants, a floofy frilly shirt that looks like a woman's blouse, and oh yes... A literal full-length cape, complete with an upturned sharp collar. “I'm going as a vampire.”  
  
“You already are a vampire. Take it off.”  
  
“How else will I blend in?” Akira wonders. His eyebrows slide towards the center of his forehead. It's hard to tell, and he might be faking it, but he looks genuinely concerned.  
  
“Adults don't usually dress up unless they're going to a party or somethin'.”  
  
“You're dressed up.”  
  
“Well, yeah, but I meant that uh,” Ryuji flounders, struggling with how to explain it. “You have to dress as something that you aren't. A vampire can't go as a vampire. Otherwise, you're missin' the whole point. Wait... Is this for real your first time goin' out on Halloween?”  
  
“The last time was,” Akira looks skyward, mouth gaping slightly as he does the math. “Fifty years back. The holiday wasn't all that different back then. Aimed more towards children.”  
  
“Fifty years?!”  
  
“Nineteen-seventy.”  
  
“Go get changed, Grandpa,” Ryuji teases, earning a sharp look from Akira.  
  
With a hiss and a dramatic swirl of his cloak, Akira stomps back into the camper. Ryuji isn't sure if he should be relieved or fearful. A heavy feeling of anticipation hangs in the air as he waits to see what Akira will wear next. Despite his nomadic lifestyle he's managed to amass quite the collection of clothes. Supposedly they're costumes so that he can 'blend in' with the human population.  
  
Except that Ryuji's never seen a single outfit that would fit with modern society. He suspects that Akira's something like a hoarder, only with clothes and on a much smaller scale. Ryuji supposes he should be grateful. His outfit is one he borrowed, an authentic set of pirate garb. Though they had to embellish it a bit to make it more like a costume and less like a reenactment.  
  
“How about this?” Akira returns, this time donning an entirely different look.  
  
“Ohhhh, you look like one of them guys that go to the masked balls,” Ryuji says, stepping closer to inspect the outfit. Akira's red eyes follow his movements, peering out from behind a white and black domino mask. “I just... What are you s'posed to be exactly?”  
  
“An assassin? No, more like a thief. The kind that steals something important.”  
  
Ryuji smiles, amused by Akira's almost childlike answer, “Important? Like what?”  
  
“Something expensive. Rare jewels. A painting.”  
  
“Yeah, the only thing you're gonna be stealing is hearts. There's no way you can go into town lookin' like that. The girls won't leave you alone.”  
  
“Just the girls?” Akira asks. “Or the boys too?”  
  
“Oh, uh, both I'm sure,” Ryuji says, surprised. His heart stutters inside his chest. “Are you into both?”  
  
“Yes.”  
  
“Huh,” Ryuji breathes, desperately trying to keep a casual edge to his tone. He's trying not to get his hopes up, but, “So you're like, bisexual?”  
  
“There's a word for it?”  
  
“Yeah. You've never heard it?”  
  
Akira shrugs his shoulders, “I've lived pretty conservatively until this point.”  
  
“I guess that's true,” Ryuji says, chewing at his bottom lip. “That's what it means though, bisexual. It's where you like both men and women.”  
  
“Then that must be what I am,” Akira says, so nonchalant as if he's merely named off his favorite color. Ryuji's entire body is buzzing with excitement, though he's not sure why. What does he care if Akira likes both men and women? It doesn't directly affect him. Right? Right...?  
  
“Anyways,” Ryuji clears his throat. “We should ditch the costumes. I mean, I wanna dress up, but we should try to keep a low profile.”  
  
“I was thinking the same,” Akira says with a touch of disappointment. “You look nice though.”  
  
Ryuji's face flushes as he stammers out, “You too. You make a cool thief assassin or whatever.”  
  
“I'll borrow some of your clothes,” Akira says as he steps back into the camper, off on his third change. He returns with a set for both of them, a typical t-shirt and jeans combo. “Which ones do you want?”  
  
“Doesn't matter,” Ryuji mumbles, accepting whatever is offered to him. His mind isn't really on fashion anymore. Instead, it's on the fact that Akira is undressing in front of him, mere minutes after declaring himself bisexual. More troubling still is that Ryuji doesn't understand why it matters.  
  
Why does the thought of undressing in front of Akira make his heart race?  
  
“I gotta grab something,” Ryuji says, gripping his clothes to his chest as he absconds towards the camper. Akira pays him no mind, obvious to his inner turmoil.  
  
 _This is bad,_ Ryuji thinks as he tries to fumble out of his pirate costume and into his regular clothes. It's a struggle, and he thanks whatever higher power exists that clothes are much simpler in his time. He couldn't imagine trying to put on and take off so many layers day after day. To be fair though people in those times didn't change all that often.  
  
“I thought about being a prisoner too,” Akira says, stepping into the camper. His sudden appearance causes Ryuji to jump. He yanks his pants on as fast as he can.  
  
“Oh yeah?” Ryuji calls back over his shoulder, facing away while he dons his shirt. He feels like a woman trying to hide her naked chest, only he's a man and what the fuck does it matter?  
  
“Yeah. I've even got a pair of handcuffs.”  
  
Ryuji tries very hard not to imagine Akira in handcuffs but when he turns around, the image is all but forced into his head. Akira's standing right behind him, holding up a pair of them. They're shiny silver.  
  
“It would be hard to walk around in these,” Akira remarks, his expression as innocent as a lamb's.  
  
Ryuji's mind short circuits.  
  
 *** * ***  
  
“Are you shaking?” Akira's voice ghosts against the back of Ryuji's neck, like a brush of wind. There's no human heat to it and that sends a chill down his spine. He _is_ shaking, but only a little.  
  
“I can't help it,” Ryuji whispers as they trek through the woods. They're almost at the edge, where the forest meets human civilization.  
  
“Do you think it's the full moon? Or are you nervous about going into town?”  
  
“A bit of both. My body feels like it's confused. It's waiting to change but nothin's happening.”  
  
“Should we turn back?” Akira wonders, his tone cautious. “You shouldn't push yourself.”  
  
“No,” Ryuji says firmly. “This is my only chance to do this.”  
  
They haven't yet come into view of the town but thanks to Ryuji's keen sense of smell, his memory is in overdrive. The greasy scent of the burger joint near the high school, the acrid tang of car exhaust, mowed grass, garbage cans. Akira told him once that smell is often the strongest trigger of memory. Right now he's not just being triggered, he's having to fend off a full-blown assault.  
  
“It's okay,” Akira's hand finds Ryuji's, cold and solid but something to distract him from his panic. He laces their fingers together, gripping tight to ground himself. His pulse rushes through his ears and it sounds like the ocean, like a wave has swallowed him up. Ryuji doesn't realize how fast he's breathing until Akira tells him, sharply, urgently, “Deep breaths.”  
  
“Fuck,” Ryuji wheezes. They're at the treeline now and before him lies the city. All he has to do is take a few more steps, and he's _home_. “I'm gonna throw up.”  
  
“You're fine,” Akira tells him. There's an edge to his voice, a silent warning for Ryuji's stomach contents to stay right where they are. Or else. Perhaps feeling like a bit of a bully, Akira switches to a gentler approach. Brushing his thumb over the back of Ryuji's hand he tells him, “I won't let anything happen to you.”  
  
“You swear?”  
  
“I swear.”  
  
Ryuji sucks in a few shuddering breaths, then a few more until everything feels more tolerable. As the anxiety ebbs away it's fast replaced by a sudden rush of childish glee. Ryuji's caught sight of a jack-o-lantern, lit up with a candle, and placed out on the homeowner's porch. First, there's one, then dozens. Faces, some friendly, some garish, all in the typical pumpkin style. One house has carved out a design, though it's too far away to make out. Yoda maybe?  
  
“S'gotta be,” Ryuji whispers, mostly to himself. Akira raises an eyebrow but doesn't ask. Flexing his toes Ryuji takes one final step forward to transition from grass to pavement. The texture feels oddly rough and solid beneath his feet. He wonders if he should put on his shoes. He brought them in case they needed to go into a store.  
  
“It's been a long ass time since I wore shoes,” Ryuji complains as they walk further into town. His gait is a bit unsteady, he's used to being able to feel different terrains underfoot. The smooth inner sole absorbs too much shock for his liking. “Oh, uh, we don't have to hold hands the whole time.”  
  
Akira glances at him, then at their hands. Reluctantly, or maybe only reluctantly in Ryuji's mind, he lets go.  
  
“If you need it again, it's there,” Akira offers. Ryuji can't think of a good excuse to hold it again so soon. Besides, his palms keep sweating.  
  
“I'll keep that in mind.”  
  
They walk in silence for a while, merely getting a lay of the land. In the five years since Ryuji's 'death' not much has changed in his little hometown. It's all the same stores and all the same houses. Although, they did seem to finally put in that big shopping mall they had been talking about. It looms in the distance like a big white LED beacon.  
  
“Where is your house?” Akira wonders, glancing left and right, as if he expects to find it by merely looking.  
  
“It's a mile or so from here,” Ryuji says, gesturing in the general direction. “We can walk down to see it if you want.”  
  
“Only if you're okay with it.”  
  
“Definitely. I wanted to look in on my mom.”  
  
Ryuji gets hit with wave after wave of nostalgia as they trek on towards his childhood home. Kids and parents fill the streets and sidewalks, all going door to door to trick-or-treat. Ryuji finds himself impressed with many of the costumes. They're more elaborate than anything he had as a kid. Though not for lack of trying.  
  
“My mom used to make my costumes,” Ryuji remarks, passing by a group of teenagers. They're all dressed as characters from a tv show but it's not one he recognizes. “One year I went as a backhoe. It's like this big machine that uses a scoop to pick up dirt.”  
  
“The yellow ones,” Akira says around a smile. “Right?”  
  
“Yeah! The big yellow ones. My mom made my costume out of cardboard boxes and fabric. It was actually pretty impressive. I think the scoop was a dustpan...”  
  
“I wish I could have seen it.”  
  
“Me too, man, you would've loved it,” Ryuji says, voice softening. It's a happy memory indeed but also a reminder of how drastically off track his life is.  
  
“Don't take this the wrong way but I wish I had grown up with you.”  
  
“Huh? Why would I take offense to that?”  
  
“It's wrong of me to insert myself into your memories,” Akira replies. “I do it all the time, imagine what it would be like to have shared in your childhood. To have been your friend.”  
  
“You _are_ my friend, Akira,” Ryuji whispers. “If you hadn't of come along, I don't know what I would have done. I'd be all wolf and no human. You saved me.”  
  
“It's still selfish of me to think that way.”  
  
“I like it. You would have made a really great childhood friend. I know Ann and Shiho would have loved you. And my mom, fuck, don't get me started. She'd of been crazy about you. So don't worry about it, okay? I don't mind if you think about that kind of stuff.”  
  
Before Akira can reply, the conversation is interrupted by the sudden appearance of three children. They're blocking the sidewalk, acting like pint-sized bouncers for a small harvest party. A girl dressed up as a fairy, possibly Tinkerbell, steps up towards them. Discomfort ties itself into a knot inside Ryuji's chest. They're not supposed to interact with humans.  
  
“Don't panic,” Akira tells him in an incredibly calm voice. He even goes so far as to kneel down, putting himself at eye level with the small child. “May we pass by?”  
  
“You gotta pay,” the girl informs him. A boy dressed up as Spider-Man comes to stand at her side, arms crossed over his chest.  
  
“Mmm, we don't have any money or candy,” Akira says, looking thoughtful.  
  
“Are these guys bothering you?” The final child asks as he approaches. He's older than the others by a year or so, dressed up like a zombie. Ryuji leans in to get a better look, impressed by his 'rotting flesh' makeup. It looks alarmingly real for a child's Halloween costume. “Cool, huh? My mom went on Pintrest to learn how to do it.”  
  
Ryuji has no idea what that means, so he says, “It looks great.” and leaves it at that.  
  
“What are you two even dressed as, anyway?”  
  
“I'm a vampire,” Akira informs them, flashing his fangs. Ryuji shoots him a look as an electric bolt of shock runs through his body.  
  
“The hell are you doin', Akira?!” Ryuji growls, in a voice so low the humans are not likely to hear it. The children crowd around Akira to get a better look.  
  
“You're not a vampire,” Tinkerbell informs him, rolling her eyes. “Vampires are supposed to sparkle.”  
  
“No, they're supposed to NOT sparkle,” The zombie counters. A fight breaks out between the trio. While they're distracted, Ryuji and Akira slip by unnoticed.  
  
“Why'd you out yourself like that?” Ryuji demands once they've turned the corner on the next block.  
  
“They obviously didn't believe me,” Akira says mildly. “I knew they wouldn't. Why should they? It's Halloween night.”  
  
“You gotta be careful,” Ryuji implores. “Gave me a damn heart attack.”  
  
Akira huffs out a soft breath of laughter.  
  
The two of them traverse a crosswalk at the next intersection. Ryuji finds himself on the street leading to his home. Or the house that had once been his home. His nerves from earlier have returned though he keeps them in better check.  
  
“I don't know if my mom still lives there,” Ryuji says honestly. “I mean, I hope she does, but who knows? Maybe she moved out of town? If my kid died I want to get as far away from where it happened as I could.”  
  
“She's there,” Akira says, certain. Before Ryuji can ask how he's so sure, he explains, “Her blood smells like yours. Even from this distance, I can tell.”  
  
“I'm both impressed and disturbed,” Ryuji laughs weakly. He can see his house and it's the same as it always was. The yard is tidy, if a little overgrown. Most of the plants in the flowerbeds are struggling to survive. His mother never had much of a green thumb, though she never gave up on trying. He can smell fresh soil, she must have replaced the annuals. The flowers leading up to the doorstep still look lively. They'll be okay for a few more days, until inevitably she drowns them.  
  
“That's it,” Ryuji says, pointing to a small two-story with a pale blue exterior. He stops some fifty-feet back, almost mechanically, like someone cut power to his legs. “I can't do this.”  
  
“You don't have to,” Akira reminds him. “She's in there and from what I can tell, she's okay.”  
  
“If that's true, then we should go.”  
  
“Wait-”  
  
A group of trick-or-treaters walk up to his mother's doorway. They knock and spin through the usual Halloween cry for candy, voices shrill. Ryuji's entire body locks up, and he freezes in place. If he can see her face, see that she's alive and well, that will be enough. The door creeks as she opens it up. Ryuji guesses she never got around to oiling the hinges. She steps out onto the porch, immediately swarmed by the small bodies. Passing out handfuls of candy she compliments their costumes. Even at a distance, Ryuji can see that she's smiling.  
  
Sensing that she's being watched, she glances up. Ryuji's heart seizes as her eyes fall on him, linger. Does she recognize him? He wants to call out for her but the words catch in his throat. He can't, not with what he is. It's too dangerous. Her eyes stay a moment longer and then flicker away.  
  
“She's can't see you from so far out,” Akira explains in a soft voice. “It's better this way.”  
  
“I know,” Ryuji rasps, eyes stinging. “It just hurts.”  
  
Akira's hand curls around Ryuji's and squeezes. They stay standing there for a while, even after his mother has gone back inside.  
  
With a shuddering breath, Ryuji turns around to leave.  
  
 _Goodbye. ..._ _I_ _'m sorry._ _  
_  
 *** * *  
  
** For almost a half-hour Ryuji and Akira wander without aim. They only break away from this behavior when Ryuji exclaims, “I need a drink!”  
  
“A drink?” Akira asks, glancing sidelong at him. He seems to have cheered considerably since leaving his old neighborhood. Though, Akira can still sense a lingering cloud hanging over his head. It'll likely be there for a few more days. “You mean we should go to a bar? We don't have any ID.”  
  
“They don't check ID. Not in a podunk town like this.”  
  
“We can give it a try,” Akira says evenly. If it helps Ryuji to feel better, he's willing to try anything. “I've never been to a modern bar.”  
  
“They're not as great as they seem. The food is crap, the drinks are overpriced, and they always play the TVs too loud.”  
  
“So why do you want to go so bad?”  
  
“To say I sat at the bar and ordered a beer,” Ryuji stretches his arms over his head, sighing deeply. “Don't worry, I won't order anything that'll get me drunk.”  
  
“So a soda,” Akira teases. Ryuji flashes a hard-won smile at him. “A beer. Just one.”  
  
“Deal but you have to drink one too.”  
  
“...Like, actually drink it?”  
  
“It won't hurt you, right?” Ryuji wonders.  
  
“No,” Akira scowls, “but it won't be enjoyable either.”  
  
“Beer hardly ever is.”  
  
They pass by several establishments before Ryuji chooses one. It's a modern upscale place, complete with strange flat television sets and billiard tables. Akira becomes entranced by all the upgrades in technology. He's been living off the grid since the mid-nineties, so everything inside the place feels futuristic.  
  
“What's that face for?” Ryuji wonders, waving a hand in front of Akira's eyes. “You still with me?”  
  
“I've never seen flat TVs before,” Akira confesses and Ryuji laughs.  
  
“You gotta get out more. For the next blood moon, we can go somewhere exciting. A big city with lots of lights.”  
  
“Like New York, New York?”  
  
“It's just one 'New York'. Either that or Shanghai. Tokyo. London. Wherever you want,” Ryuji says. “That's if I'm not a full-fledged wolf by that point.”  
  
“We'll find a cure,” Akira promises, though even he's starting to have some doubts. Takemi has run out of clues and Akira isn't sure where to look next. “How are you feeling? The moon should be pretty high in the sky. Almost time for the eclipse.”  
  
“I'm okay. I definitely feel it but it's not too annoying.”  
  
“That's good-”  
  
“SHIT,” Ryuji all at once drops down out of his seat and up under the bar. An aura of fear flares up around him. When Akira glances up to look for the cause, he's struck by a pair of bright blue-green eyes. A beautiful blond waitress is walking over towards them.  
  
“What? You think she's cute?” Akira teases, poking Ryuji with the toe of his shoe. “If you're looking for a one-night stand, this is your only chance.”  
  
“I'm not! That's not the problem, it's that that's-”  
  
“Hi! I'm Ann, I'll be your waitress tonight,” The blond glances down towards Ryuji and her expression dims. “Sir, can you get up off the floor?”  
  
“Don't mind him,” Akira intervenes, immediately grasping the situation. Ann Takamaki, Ryuji's childhood friend. It's a sure bet that she would recognize him if she saw his face. “He had too much candy at a Halloween party. He'll be alright in a minute.”  
  
“Okay, but he's got to get up.”  
  
“Right,” Ryuji says in a deep and husky voice, an attempt to disguise his identity further. He crawls out from under the bar, keeping his face averted. “I'll head to the men's room for now.”  
  
Ryuji's off like a shot. Ann disguises her sigh of disgust but Akira's keen ears still hear it. If only she knew.  
  
“I should check on him,” Akira tells her. This time she has a harder time hiding her irritation. Her eyes flash dangerously and her lips turn down at the corners, almost pouting.  
  
“Yeah, well, if you need any service I'll be at the other end of the bar. Wave me over,” Ann dismisses Akira with a slight roll of her eyes. He goes in search of Ryuji, finding him holed up inside one of the bathroom stalls.  
  
“Is she gone?” Ryuji calls out.  
  
“Are you actually in there for a reason?” Akira shoots back, ignoring Ryuji's question. The door swings open and Ryuji emerges, wide-eyed and nervous. “She's not gone. She works here.”  
  
“What are we going to do?”  
  
“Leave?”  
  
“What if she sees me on our way out?”  
  
“It's a risk we're going to have to take,” Akira says calmly. “Keep your head down, and we'll be quick about it.”  
  
They leave the bathroom and make a beeline for the door. Ann's distracted by another set of customers, so she doesn't look their way. They've almost reached the exit when a loud commotion erupts from behind them. Akira glances over his shoulder to see that the customers Ann had been helping have broken out into a fight. They're swinging fists and throwing dinnerware.  
  
“Shit,” Ryuji hisses, tentatively stepping towards Ann. “We gotta get her out of that!”  
  
“You go, I'll help her,” Akira barks out, already on his way to assist. Ryuji flies out of the restaurant and not a moment too soon. Ann's head whips around to look at Akira, her eyes wide and startled. Before he can reach out to grab her, her expression shifts again. This time, to anger.  
  
What conspires over the next thirty seconds is the most impressive thing Akira's seen in a long time. Ann utters a name and a single line of profanity and the fighting stops. The two men look at her wildly before disengaging from the fight.  
  
“Get out,” Ann snaps, throwing a finger up towards the door. Whoever she named must be important to them, or perhaps to the bar. Either way, the men leave, shoulders slumped, and tails between their legs. Metaphorically. As soon as they're gone, Ann turns on Akira. “You get out too!”  
  
“I was only stepping forward to help,” Akira tells her, holding his hands up to surrender. “Clearly, you've got a handle on this.”  
  
Before Akira can do or say anything else, Ann's eyes drop to the floor and her body sags against the bar. She looks close to crying, though she's doing everything in her power to hold back. Curious, Akira hovers nearby, waiting to see what happens.  
  
“I told you to get out,” Ann growls, though she's lost most of her fire. “Go. This isn't some kind of TV show where you get to jump in and save the day.”  
  
“It's Ann, right?” Akira says gently. “Are you alright?”  
  
“I'm fine, so go away.”  
  
“Alright, I'm going.”  
  
“What happened to that guy you were with?” Ann asks once his back is turned. “Did he get scared and run out of here?”  
  
“Something like that,” Akira tells her. She doesn't ask anything else, so he makes a quick escape. Outside, Ryuji is nowhere to be found.  
  
 *** * ***  
  
Ryuji rushes out of the bar and into the street, narrowly dodging a car. He jumps back, head swiveling from side to side as he looks for a place to hide. The last thing he needs is for Ann to come out and spot him. He ducks down an alleyway next to the bar, somewhere dark where he won't be noticed. Akira should be able to find him there, through scent or whatever other vampire voodoo powers he possesses.  
  
Walking at a steady pace, he ends up in the bar's back parking lot. He walks among the cars for a while, admiring the designs and styles of some newer models. He regrets that he was never able to really use his freshly obtained driver's license. Taking his mother's car out had been an infrequent privilege, and he hadn't had time to save up for his own. He might've liked to have had a motorcycle too.  
  
He wonders if Akira knows how to drive. Ryuji can only picture him inside dark-colored cars, something sporty and sleek. He wouldn't look bad on a motorcycle either, though Ryuji is quick to shy away from that mental image. This is no time for horn-dogging.  
  
Speaking of the vampire... Ryuji glances back over his shoulder, wondering why it is that Akira hasn't found him yet. He's still within sight of the bar. Could something bad have happened? Ryuji doubles back to be certain.  
  
Halfway through the alleyway beside the bar, a receiving door opens, and out steps the worst possible person. _Ann._ Ryuji spins on his toes to face away from her, making double time to return to the parking lot. It's too late, she's spotted him. He can hear her shoes coming after him.  
  
“Hey! You!” Ann calls out, running now. Ryuji hunches his shoulders and keeps walking, pretending he hadn't heard her. She follows him out into the parking lot, hot on his trail despite his attempts to lose her among the vehicles. Out of patience, she yells after him one final time, “Ryuji!”  
  
He doesn't mean to... But he hesitates.  
  
“Please,” she implores to him, voice wavering. “Turn around. Let me be sure it's you.”  
  
“I can't,” he tells her firmly. Neither one of them is running anymore, though Ann keeps back a few feet.  
  
“I knew I heard your voice inside the bar. It was only for a second, but I knew... You said something to that man you were with, right before you ran out.”  
  
“Forget you ever heard it. Forget you ever saw me,” Ryuji says, his hands are shaking at his sides. It's the same way as it was with his mother, he feels overwhelmed by a longing to return to his human life. Though stronger still is the fear, fear he might hurt someone he loves. “It's not safe.”  
  
“How are you alive?” Ann presses. “Where have you been all this time?”  
  
Ryuji finally turns around to face her, to confirm that he is who she thinks he is. She gasps audibly behind the hands she's holding up to her face, eyes wide with disbelief. Slowly she closes the distance between them, until they're mere inches apart. She doesn't try to touch him, though he sort of wishes she would. It all feels too much like a dream.  
  
“Something's different about you,” she remarks in a soft whisper. “...your eyes.”  
  
“What are you even doin' out here?” Ryuji demands. “Go back inside. Do your job.”  
  
“I'm off work. I was on my way to my car.”  
  
“You should go then.”  
  
“Ryuji, just talk to me,” Ann insists, reaching a hand towards him.  
  
“Ann, don't,” Ryuji warns. “It's not safe. I... I have to go.”  
  
“At least tell me where you're staying. I can come to see you, we can talk. And your mom! She'll want to see you too. You have no idea what she's been through-”  
  
Akira's scent hits Ryuji from a distance and panic wells up inside his chest. He doesn't want the vampire to catch him speaking to a human. Speaking to Ann.  
  
“Forget you saw me,” Ryuji snaps, taking a step back and away from her. “It's better if you go back to believing that I'm dead. Don't tell Ma that you saw me. She doesn't deserve to have her heart broken a second time.”  
  
Before Ann can form a reply, Ryuji turns tail to run. This time he doesn't hold back, using all the strength and speed that comes with being a werewolf. He leaps nimbly over the roof of a small sedan, landing on the other side in a vacant lot. Shoving his fingers into his mouth he whistles shrilly, a signal that Akira can seek out.

Moments later Akira rounds the corner of a nearby shopping plaza. He jogs over to Ryuji, eyes wide with curiosity, “It's been a while since we got separated like that. Are you alright?”  
  
“I'm good,” Ryuji shoves his hands down into his pockets, balling them up into fists. He hopes Akira can't feel the anxiety rolling off of him in waves. “Let's skip the drink. There's somewhere I wanna go.”  
  
Akira falls into step beside him, “Where to?”  
  
“The local cemetery.”  
  
“Are you looking for ghosts?” Akira asks, jabbing him jovially in the side with an elbow. Ryuji's body tenses. “What's wrong?”  
  
“Nothin',” Ryuji grumbles. “It scared me when you didn't come to find me.”  
  
“Sorry. It's been a while since I've tracked a scent through such a populated area. I couldn't pinpoint where you had gone.”  
  
“I'm not mad or nothin'. I just want you to stay closer.”  
  
“I can do that,” It might be Ryuji's imagination, but he thinks he catches Akira smiling privately to himself. “So why the cemetery?”  
  
“There's this big hill in the middle of it. We should climb to the top to watch the eclipse,” Ryuji suggests. “C'mon, man. I'll race ya.”  
  
Ryuji holds himself back a bit so that Akira can take the lead. Moving at a slow lope, he glances over his shoulder to check the parking lot for Ann, though he doesn't find her.  
  
He hopes someday she can forgive him.  
  
 *** * *  
  
** The cemetery is, ironically, the most peaceful place that Ryuji has ever been. As a child the thought of going inside had deeply frightened him. One too many times the neighborhood kids had dared each other to spend the night there. Ryuji never met anyone who had actually done it. He had tried himself one time. Before he had gotten past the front gates his mother, who had caught wind of his plans, showed up to get him. Ann never let him live it down.  
  
Ryuji tells the story to Akira, who laughs at the unexpected ending, “Curious that humans are so often more afraid of the dead than they are of the living.”  
  
“It's probably a survival instinct,” Ryuji says, taking the lead as they begin their ascent up the hill. “Since becoming a werewolf, I don't worry about that kind of stuff anymore. Not that, like, I don't think there's something bigger and badder out there that could hurt me. I know there is but I'm not worried about the small stuff.”  
  
“Small stuff?”  
  
“Like getting sick or growin' old.”  
  
“You'll have to worry about them if we cure you,” Akira points out.  
  
Ryuji shrugs, “We can't know what the future brings. Right?”  
  
“Right.”  
  
At the top of the hill, they sit side by side on a patch of soft grass, shoulders brushing. Ryuji is surprised to find that they've got a decent view of the town, the hill high enough to overlook the better parts. As they wait for the eclipse to begin, Ryuji quietly points things out to Akira.  
  
“Over there's the bowlin' alley and the roller rink. There's a couple small arcades by the elementary school,” Ryuji murmurs, swallowing thickly. There's a strange pain building up inside his chest. He's not sure if it's from his reminiscing or because of the moon overhead. When Ryuji glances up he gasps, shocked by the deep red color he sees there. “I get why they call it a blood moon now.”  
  
“It's beautiful,” Akira agrees. “In all the years I've lived, I can't remember seeing it like this.”  
  
“Oh yeah? Well, then I'm glad you're seein' it with me.”  
  
Akira smiles, “I'm glad too.”  
  
They sit in silence for a while, enjoying the gentle breeze and the good company. Ryuji's eyes slip shut as he digs his fingers down into the grass. He feels oddly connected to the earth, like he's somehow tapped into its rotation. It's something he never feels during a normal full moon. Like his beast's brain can't quite comprehend that much.  
  
“Oh,” Akira says, catching Ryuji's attention. “Look, the eclipse is about to begin.”  
  
Ryuji holds his breath in anticipation, watching as a small crescent of inky black forms around one edge of the moon, sliding inward. The pace is slower than he anticipated, a leisurely encroaching shadow. The vague feeling of pain remains inside his chest and his fingers itch. His body is so confused about what it wants.  
  
“You're okay,” Akira whispers in his ear. He presses himself closer to Ryuji's side. “Give me your hand.”  
  
“Yeah, okay,” Ryuji mindlessly offers it to him, eyes locked on the eclipse. He feels as though he's in a trance, awakened only when he feels the soft brush of Akira's lips against his knuckles. Ryuji tears his eyes away from the moon. He has to be certain that what he thinks he feels is actually what he's feeling. Excitement courses through him at the sight of Akira kissing his hand.  
  
“I want you,” Akira tells him breathlessly.  
  
“Want me how?” Ryuji asks because he can't be certain of his own brain's interpretation. He looks back up towards the sky as he awaits the answer. The moon continues to sing to him. It tries to call forth the beast that lives underneath his skin but nothing happens. It makes him feel exposed. “I'm so confused, man.”  
  
“You're okay,” Akira insists, even though Ryuji is certain that he's not, and that he never will be again. Everything inside of him feels like it's breaking. “Lay down.”  
  
“Help me?”  
  
Akira takes him by the shoulders to put him down in the grass. It's cold and a little moist against his back but definitely better than sitting up. Akira lays down next to him, tucked close to Ryuji's side. Instead of watching the eclipse, the vampire watches him instead.  
  
Ryuji glances at him out of the corner of his eye before boldly asking, “Do you like me or somethin'?”  
  
“I do,” Akira admits freely. Ryuji's heart must be doing parkour or something inside his chest. It bounces off his rib cage as it performs a backwards flip. “I have for a long time now.”  
  
“Why didn't you tell me?”  
  
“I wasn't sure if you felt the same.”  
  
“And now?” Ryuji asks.  
  
“You tell me,” Akira counters. “What am I to you?”  
  
“You're my best friend,” Ryuji whispers, “My weird vampire roomie.”  
  
“What else?”  
  
“You're takin' advantage of me. The moon's got my brain all scrambled.”  
  
“You sound lucid enough to me,” Akira assures him with a soft laugh. “Come on, I know you can do better than that.”  
  
“You're... Uh... That asshole who forgot to bring in my laundry last week when it rained.”  
  
“...You're not going to let that go, are you?”  
  
“Nope.”  
  
They lie quietly while Ryuji tries to work his feelings out inside his head. Deep down he's known for a while that their friendship has been changing, morphing into something different. Something more. All the small things that he's been hoping and wishing for are now within his reach.  
  
“The truth is,” Ryuji says carefully, methodically, “I like you. More than I've ever liked anyone. Recently, I've felt pretty nervous just bein' around you because I wasn't sure if there was a chance-... I didn't want to do anything that might scare you away. I'd rather have you nearby than not at all.”  
  
“Not only that,” he continues. “What if someday I change during a full moon and I never come back from it? That scares me.”  
  
Akira lets out a low noise of understanding, “I've been thinking the same way. A day might come when we'll have to part ways.”  
  
“I didn't know if you were jus' jerkin' me around or if you thought there could be something between us.”  
  
“There's definitely something there but...”  
  
“But nothin',” Ryuji says, turning to look at Akira. “I said I'm scared, not that I would regret it. Yeah, someday we'll have to say goodbye but like, no one really stays together forever. People drift away or move or die. Doesn't mean it's not worth tryin'. I won't regret it. Even if tonight's the last time I see you.”  
  
Akira raises his eyebrows, his eyes wide with shock, “You promise?”  
  
“I promise,” Ryuji says firmly.  
  
“Even after seeing your mom? And Ann? It hurt you.”  
  
“Lots of things hurt, doesn't always mean they're all bad.”  
  
Akira laughs and the sound catches Ryuji off guard, “Sometimes you're so wise...”  
  
“The hell? I am not,” Ryuji averts his eyes away, looking back up at the moon. It's almost covered over. Only a tiny sliver of red remains. Ryuji feels across the grass for Akira's hand so that he can lace their fingers together. “Thank you for coming with me tonight. I'd never have been able to do this on my own.”  
  
“I'd do anything for you.”  
  
“I know you would. It makes me stupidly happy.”  
  
“There's nothing stupid about it,” Akira whispers, though there's still a soft edge of amusement to his voice. “Whether we stay together for one day or one hundred, I'm happy to have you with me.”  
  
“You're kinda sappy,” Ryuji laughs, the sound bubbling up from deep inside him. “Whoa, look at that.”  
  
As the last of the moon disappears inside the earth's shadow, a bright beam of light creates a round halo in the sky. Ryuji watches as it flickers like fire, lingering in the sky for a few brief minutes before it fades away.  
  
“These lunar eclipse things aren't half bad. Sorta beautiful,” Ryuji remarks. “It reminds me of-”  
  
The words die in his throat. Akira shifts closer to brush his lips over the side of Ryuji's neck. For a moment, he thinks maybe Akira wants blood. He tilts his head to the opposite side to make room, anticipating a sharp bite. Instead, Akira starts laughing.  
  
“I'm just kissing you,” he murmurs against Ryuji's skin.  
  
Ryuji's face flushes with embarrassment, “Oh, well, then do it right. Kiss me on the lips.”  
  
“You're sure?”  
  
“C'mon, man. Go for the gold.”  
  
Akira is hesitant at first, like he's expecting someone to come along to yank the rug out from under him. He barely touches Ryuji's lips with his own, so light in fact that it can hardly be called a kiss. When Ryuji doesn't do anything to stop him, the tension leaves his body. He melts into it, kissing Ryuji like he's made for that and nothing else.  
  
* * *  
  
“Hey, there's one more place I want to go before we head back,” Ryuji says as he stretches his arms above his head. The two of them spent the entire second half of the eclipse rolling about in the grass. Ryuji's muscles have gone stiff.  
  
“I'm in no hurry,” Akira says, though it's a lie. He's made it pretty obvious what he intends to do to Ryuji when they return to the camper. Akira might have gone ahead and done it anyway had Ryuji's nerves not gotten the better of him. He's not proud of it, but he also knows it won't be held against him.  
  
“It won't take long, I promise.”  
  
Their hands appear to be magnetized, coming together and holding fast. Ryuji's delighted at how easy being with Akira is now that everything is in the open. They don't have to dance around their feelings anymore and it's incredibly freeing. He swings their arms as he walks, leading them through the cemetery.  
  
“Where are we going?” Akira wonders, glancing over his shoulder as if he's worried someone's tailing them.  
  
“I wanna find my stone,” Ryuji explains in a light voice. He's already caught his mother's scent, no surprise that it's so strong. She must visit his grave often, not quite daily, but almost. “I wish I could leave her a letter or somethin'.”  
  
“Your mother, you mean.”  
  
“Yes.”  
  
“I felt the same way,” Akira murmurs. “My parents and I were close, so it was difficult not to seek them out. They were kind people and I'm sure my death came as a terrible shock to them. I didn't want to do anything that might further confuse or hurt them.”  
  
“I know,” Ryuji says. He pauses in front of a stout curved stone, too nervous to look at it although he knows it's his. The same flowers he had seen in his mother's garden are planted in a tiny plastic pot at the base. The air is rich with the scent of her favorite perfume. Ryuji bought it for her birthday. It was the last one they got to spend together. “So, this is it.”  
  
“This is it,” Akira agrees, kneeling down by the grave to look it over. “Your mother must come by often.”  
  
“Yeah, that's definitely what she does.”  
  
“There's some graffiti on the corner...”  
  
“What?” Ryuji glances down to see Akira hunched over, staring at the lower-left half of the stone. He kneels down beside him but doesn't see anything out of the ordinary. “There's no graffiti.”  
  
“I know,” Akira says as he stands back up. “I knew you weren't going to look at it on your own."  
  
“...Hey, thanks.”  
  
“Take your time.”  
  
Ryuji seats himself in front of the stone and for a while, he just stares at it. It's a simple marker, not made of anything fancy and void of decorations. His name is engraved on it, along with his birthday and his date of death. Seeing it for the first time is unnerving, but that's a good thing. Right? Hadn't he told Ann a short while ago to go on pretending he died?  
  
It actually might be true. The boy he was that night in the woods is nowhere near the man he is today. He missed out on so much, graduation, proms, his first car, college. Ryuji does feel like he should mourn, for the life he's lost isn't something he can ever get back.  
  
“It sucks,” Ryuji tells the stone, tells his younger self. “We'll never get to see how things would'a turned out. Never gonna know all that we could'a been. That... You could'a been.”  
  
“Runnin' around with your blond hair and your bad mouth, trying to be a badass. That way people didn't think of you as the kid that came from the broken home with a drunk father. All the shit those adults said about you... You just wanted to prove that you were good enough.”  
  
“And you just _had_ to go on that effin' trip. Couldn't stand the thought of that shitbag Kamoshida getting his way. You were going to show up and prove him wrong as many times as it took. Fuck... Such a stupid little bastard.”  
  
Ryuji reaches out to trace the letters of his name. The stone is cold beneath his fingertips, “Despite it all, you turned out okay. Yeah, livin' out in the woods isn't exactly the dream life you pictured. But,” Ryuji glances over his shoulder, able to see Akira still strolling among the other graves. “you've got him... And he likes you back, which is fuckin' wild by the way.”  
  
“I don't know if there's really a cure or how many more moon changes I have before I go perma-wolf. If I can, someday I'll come back and get the dates fixed up. In the meanwhile, I wanted you to know all that.”  
  
Ryuji doesn't look back as he rises to his feet and goes off to join up with Akira. There's still a lot of burning questions inside his head, and a lot of things he needs to part ways with. For now, he feels an odd sense of calm, like he's finally made peace with his past life.  
  
“You ready to go?” Akira glances up at Ryuji as he approaches, almost smiling, like it's a reflex he can't fully control.  
  
“I'm ready,” Ryuji extends his hand and Akira takes hold of it.  
  
“Hey... It's going to be okay.”  
  
“I know that.”  
  
“You're crying,” Akira whispers gently. All at once, Ryuji becomes aware of the moisture on his face.  
  
“I'm not cryin',” Ryuji insists, relieved when Akira doesn't press the issue. He uses his free hand to wipe the tears off his face. “Let's go home, 'kay?”  
  
“Let's go home.”  
  
Ryuji grips Akira's hand a bit tighter. He decides that this man is his new future. Whatever comes after, they'll face it together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And they lived happily ever after. 
> 
> NOT.


	2. The Vampire That Vanishes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are going great between Akira and Ryuji. Until they aren't. Turns out vampires have complicated feelings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all! Thanks for being patient while I worked to get this next part out. I've been working on it for most of the day but what took so long was the editing! (This is my way of avoiding the election. It's getting scary out there folks.) 
> 
> Anyway, enough about that. Here's part two!

When Ryuji awakens the next evening, his entire body feels as though it's been steamrolled. His back aches, his hips ache, his knees, his jaw. The camper is a hot mess, there are clothes, pillows, and sheets strung all over. An empty bottle almost trips him on his way outside. It's the one he brewed the wine in. They must have drunk it all. Well, _he_ must have drunk it all.

Akira is outside, not looking any better than Ryuji feels. He's laying on his back in the grass, eyes closed, and wavy black hair in tangles. He glances over in time to see Ryuji half step half fall out of the camper. Hobbling on stiff legs, he makes his way across the yard to collapses beside Akira.

“What the fuck happened?” Ryuji rasps, his voice is hoarse and throat raw. He's got a pretty good idea, but he needs Akira to confirm it.

“'Fuck' is exactly it,” Akira says, his voice giddy.

“Are you still drunk?”

“Yep. What about you?”

“Oh yeah, big time.” Ryuji shuts his eyes to rest, listening to the crack and pop of the fire. 

Later in the evening, Ryuji wakes up a second time. The sky above is black, glittered with stars. Akira is sitting up beside him, wrapped in a blanket, though there's really no need. He's never been bothered by heat or cold.

“Lemme in there,” Ryuji demands as he worm wriggles to get closer. Akira opens up his arms, beckoning the werewolf to join him. It's only then that Ryuji sees the long claw marks running down Akira's shoulders and arms. “Oh shit, did I do that?”

“Do what-Oh. Yeah, but I don't mind.” Akira shrugs. “It's not like it's going to turn me or anything. They're already healing.”

“Still, remind me to clip my nails shorter next time or somethin'.”

“I like them.”

“You've got weird kinks.”

“It's too late to opt-out if that bothers you,” Akira teases as Ryuji settles in on his side of the blanket cocoon. “Your eyes are still yellow.”

“Aren't they always?” Ryuji asks, baffled by the statement.

“There's an old legend that says spilling virgin's blood can cure werewolfism.”

“I ain't the one who's all scratched up-...” Oh shit. Ryuji turns his head around to look at Akira, studying the vampire's face. “What did you mean just now?”

“You heard me,” Akira says in a low tone, seemingly embarrassed.

“You mean you have never...?”

“Sounds impossible, doesn't it?”

“A little,” Ryuji admits, “I believe you though. Makes me feel like a jerk for being so rough.”

“It was your first time too, correct?”

“Yeah, oh uh, but I liked it.”

“Really?” Akira's voice drops down into a purr. Slowly he climbs his way over into Ryuji's lap, red eyes blazing with lust. “Maybe we should do it one more time. Just in case.”

_Oh fuck._

“Wait,” Ryuji stammers, pressing a palm against Akira's chest to hold him back. “I need to tell you something. It's been on my mind since yesterday.”

“What is it?” Akira wonders, eyes narrowed. It's clear that Ryuji better have a good reason for interrupting.

“Ann recognized me. We crossed paths in the parking lot behind the bar.”

“Oh,” Akira says with a half shrug, “It shouldn't be anything to worry about. I doubt she'll tell anyone and there's no chance of her finding us out here in the woods.”

“I guess so,” Ryuji mumbles. “I thought you would be angry.”

“Angry? Why?”

“I dunno. You're always harping on taking precautions to prevent discovery.”

“It will be winter soon,” Akira assures him. “No one is going to come up here in the wintertime.”

“That's true,” he agrees. Akira presses closer. Ryuji can feel that he's already hard and that's... “Wow, uh, yes, okay, let's do this.”

Akira kisses him roughly, and they tumble back into the grass. 

* * * 

The next few weeks see a drop in temperature and on some mornings, small amounts of snowfall. It never sticks around longer than a few hours, but it excites Ryuji all the same. He’s looking forward to the colder months, his body suited to the snow and the ice. Akira seems to enjoy the serenity, though it’s obvious he also misses his bird watching. Most of them have gone south for the winter.

Things between them haven’t changed much. At their core, they’re the same friends they’ve always been. With the added benefit of physical contact. Ryuji doesn’t feel ashamed when Akira’s need for blood turns into his need for something else. Just about every feeding ends with a good romp in bed.

Though not everything is about sex. Kissing, holding hands, snuggling, a general sense of physical closeness. Ryuji’s been without that for eight long years, and now he can have as much as he wants. Akira seems as eager about it as he is. They find any excuse to bump elbows or brush hands.

Ryuji is the happiest he’s been in years, finally at a point where he feels like things are going right for him.

The icing on the cake arrives at the end of November.

Ryuji is expecting his transformation to last for two weeks, maybe longer. That’s been the pattern. Instead, he wakes up the following morning, shocked beyond belief. It’s been years since he’s had a shift that ended after only one night. Akira isn’t even there to welcome him home. He’s likely thinking that he’ll away for a few more days.

Ryuji picks himself up off the frost-covered ground to rush back. He’s eager to share the good news, but when he arrives he’s disappointed. The camper is empty, with tracks leading up the mountain. Akira’s probably gone off to see the witch, Takemi. A two-day journey, so he won’t be back for a while. Ryuji isn’t sure what he’s supposed to do in the meantime. His short transformation is unprecedented.

So he starts by tidying up the yard. They’ve been lazy about it, allowing leaves and pine needles to pile up. Using a rake Akira fashioned for him out of broken tree limbs, Ryuji begins to clear the ground. Thirty minutes in he can’t shake the feeling that something, or someone, is watching him.

The camp is downwind to assist in hiding it but this also has the obvious con of being an easy location to ambush. Akira’s told him of the early days when vampires and werewolves were constantly at odds. It wasn’t just with each other, but their own kinds as well. Remaining in one place for a long time made you vulnerable.  
  
Now Ryuji understands why.

It’s unlikely that another vampire or werewolf has wandered into the area, but not impossible. Ryuji goes back to raking, but his attention is elsewhere. He searches the treeline for movement, a scent, a sound. A twig snaps and he’s on it in an instant.

Ryuji is expecting to come face to face with either claws or fangs, or even a late-season bear, but instead, he finds, “Ann?!”

“Ryuji!” Ann startles so badly that she ends up sprawled on her back in the dirt. She fumbles to stand up and Ryuji lets her, before remembering his manners. He offers her a hand and together they get her up onto her feet. “What the hell did you do that for?!”

“I didn’t do anything! You’re the one out here stalking me!”

“I’m not stalking you. I came to find you.”

“Why?!” Ryuji snaps, anger flaring. “I told you to forget about me.”

“I couldn’t do that!” Ann yells back. “All this time I thought you were dead. I mourned you, went to your funeral, and your wake, and then you show up at my job alive and well. How am I supposed to let that slide?!”

“It’s not safe!”

“I’m already here!”

“Turn around and go home,” Ryuji threatens, taking a single step towards her. She squares her shoulders and stands up straight. Of course, she’s not easily intimidated. They glare at one another, posturing, willing the other to submit. Instead, Ann’s lips draw into a thin line and then she laughs.

“What the hell are we doing?” She asks with a slow shake of her head. “If you want me to go, I will. I just wanted to see you one more time.”

“Yeah,” Ryuji grins weakly. “You should get outta here. It’s not safe.”

Ann holds up her arm, covered in fresh blood, “Oh trust me, I know.”

Ryuji’s stomach clenches with discomfort. Did his nails scratch her somehow?!

“Where did you get those?!” he demands harshly. Ann’s eyebrows raise, but she doesn’t show any fear.

“Barbwire fence. About a mile back. Don’t worry,” Ann’s voice drops into a low tone, “ _You_ didn’t scratch me.”

Ryuji flinches, and she catches him at it.

“A werewolf then,” she muses.

“What makes you think that?” Ryuji shoots back, but it’s clear that he’s already outed himself.

“In Senior year I ran the high school creative writing club. Believe me, I’ve read my share of vampire and werewolf erotica.”

“E-Erotica? In high school?”

“I only graded the papers. I didn’t police the content.”

She’s closer to the truth than she knows, closer than he’s willing to admit. So instead he offers, “Come with me. We’ll get your arm cleaned up.”  
  
Even if Akira left the night before to go to Takemi’s, he still has a day’s worth of travel to get back. Ann will hopefully, no, _definitely_ be gone by then. Ryuji should be little to no risk to her in his human form.

“You live near here?” Ann asks, following him towards the camper. “In a cave or...?”

“Camper trailer,” Ryuji calls back over his shoulder. Ann blinks in surprise.

“Do you live alone?”

“Oh, uh, no. With that guy you saw me with before, Akira.”

“Akira,” Ann repeats his name in a soft voice. She sounds as though she’s heard it before.

“Sorry in advance for the mess,” Ryuji says as they step free of the trees. He glances back to check her expression, surprised to see that she looks... Impressed?  
  
“You’ve got your own little homestead up here.”

“All the comforts of home. Well, not all, but most of them. Akira ‘n me like it okay.”

“Akira and you?” Ann wags her eyebrows at him. “Two men alone in the woods together, no women for miles-“

“It ain’t like that, okay? He’s bisexual.”

“...That still kind of proves my point.”

“Oh. I guess it does,” Ryuji hesitates at the entrance to the camper. “He and I aren’t just blowin’ off steam up here. We’re in a relationship.”

“Ohhh, so you blow off steam together,” Ann coos. Ryuji now remembers how much he hates her relentless teasing. “Didn’t know you liked men.”

“I like one man,” he corrects, adding as they enter the camper, “Again, sorry about the mess. I’ll grab the first aid kit.”

“What mess? I can’t see in here. It’s so dark.”

Oh. Right.

“Sorry, forgot,” Ryuji opens all the blinds, allowing the natural light to come in through the windows. “Better?”

“Much,” Ann says, taking a seat at the camper’s tiny built-in table. “So can you, like, see in the dark?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“...And Akira also?”

Ryuji hesitates before answering. He knows Ann won’t accept any attempt to deflect her question. How honest he can be about it without completely revealing what Akira is?

“He’s something like me,” Ryuji tells her.

“A vampire,” Ann guesses, grinning when her answer gives him pause. “Wow, you are bad at this.”

“Well, I’ve had five years to let my social skills deteriorate.”

“And yet your vocabulary is vastly better than it was in high school.”

“Akira sometimes gets in these weird ‘grammar nazi’ moods,” Ryuji tells her. He reaches for her arm, mindful of his nails. After he cleans away the dried blood, he’s relieved to see that the cuts are superficial.

“Is it really just you two up here?” Ann asks. Her eyes are watching him, and a part of him wonders what it is she’s looking for. What it is she sees.

“Yes, it’s just us. And a witch.”

“A witch?!”

“She lives a long ways from here.”

“So,” Ann prompts. “You never go into the city?”

“Only the other night. Never before that.”

“There was a full moon,” Ann points out. “Why weren’t you a werewolf?”

“The eclipse. Werewolves don’t change during a blood moon.”

“Huh. I wouldn’t have guessed that.”

“You didn’t tell my mom, right?” Ryuji asks, lifting his eyes to meet Ann’s.

“I didn’t. I promise,” Ann soothes. “I wanted to come here and see for myself what was going on.”

“I wish you hadn’t of.”

“I know, but what can we do about it now?”

Ryuji sighs as he sits down on the other side of the table, “You’re gonna start asking me a bunch of questions, huh?”

“Yep.”

It’s awkward at first. Ryuji hasn’t seen Ann in so long that he can’t help noticing everything that’s changed about her. The way she looks, the way she speaks, it’s all different from the Ann he knew growing up. Though he’s sure she could say the same about him. His years of living alone have altered him pretty drastically.

“So what about you and Shiho?” he asks during a brief lull in her interrogation. “Are you two-...?”

“Oh yeah,” Ann is quick to reveal. She holds up her left hand to show off the small silver band on her ring finger. “Shiho and I are engaged. Though I’m not totally sure when we’ll be able to have a wedding. Money’s pretty tight.”

“Is that why you’re workin’ at that bar?”

“Basically.”

“What happened to modelin’?”

“I still do it from time-to-time. There’s not a huge market for it in a town that small,” Ann says, turning her head to look out the window. “When we can afford it, and after we’re married, we’re going to move to the big city. Not sure where yet.”

“Sounds like you’re doin’ okay,” Ryuji murmurs. “Hey, whatever happened to Kamoshida?”

“That asshole?” Ann turns around to peek at Ryuji, an amused smile playing at her lips. “He got totally busted by the cops, at first it was just because of you. Guess it’s a big deal when one of the kids you’re responsible for gets killed. Then... Then all of us girls came forward to talk about the gross things he said to us and how he used to hit people.”  
  
“For real?!”

“Mmhmm. He did a couple of years and I haven’t heard anything about him since.”

“Damn,” Ryuji sighs, feeling a sense of satisfaction. “It was brave of you guys to open up to the cops. I-... I’d never have been able to. I couldn’t even tell the truth to the CPS people when they would come by askin’ about my dad.”

“It’s because of you that we were strong enough,” Ann confesses, her eyes drop to stare at the tabletop. She traces her finger over its faux wood grain. “I felt like I had to avenge you or something. I lost my best friend because of that jerk. I wasn’t going to let him walk free.”

“You didn’t have to do that.”

“I know, but I wanted to. It was a way for me to deal with what had happened.”

“I’m sorry,” Ryuji whispers. “It’s not that I didn’t want to come home. I did, and still do, but it isn’t safe.”

“Why?” Ann pleas, “Because Akira says so?”

“Whoa, what’s he got to do with this?”

“What do you mean ‘what’s he got to do with this’?! He’s the whole reason I found you.”

Ryuji’s eyes narrow, “Are you tryin’ to say he’s talked to you?”

“He left me clues, letters,” Ann reaches into the backpack she’s got with her. “I thought maybe it was you at first, trying to reach out. Your reaction to seeing me here kind of squashed that theory.”

All at once, she covers the camper table with maps, small notes, and photographs. Ryuji takes his time to look everything over, checking the handwriting and smelling for Akira’s scent on the pages. The proof is right there in front of him, though his mind tries to shy away from it.

“I don’t know why he would do this,” Ryuji insists. “He’s always talking about how careful we have to be to hide our location.”

“Are you saying he didn’t write any of these notes?” Ann asks, her blue eyes blazing.

“Well, no. He probably did. I just don’t understand...”

“Okay, let’s stop for a second. Maybe it’s not as sinister as it seems. He cares about you a lot, right? I bet he thought you could use another friend. He must think I’m someone trustworthy.”

Ryuji considers that theory, “Well, he’d be right. You’re definitely someone I’d trust.”

“That’s a good thing then, right?” Ann reaches across the table to curl her hands around Ryuji’s. He flinches but doesn’t pull away. “I know you’d never hurt me, Ryuji.”

“It’s been eight years. How can you know that? We’ve changed.”

“You’ve got yellow eyes instead of yellow hair,” Ann teases with a small laugh, “So that’s definitely a change.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Ryuji mumbles fondly, giving her hands a light squeeze. “You cut your hair. I’ve never seen you with short hair before.”  
“It’s not that short.”

“Shoulder length hair for Ann Takamaki is short.”

“I needed to try something fresh,” Ann says. “These are physical things, though. I can tell you’re the same person.”

“Yeah, ‘cept I have a monster inside me to go along with it.”

“It’s only a monster if you allow it to be one.”

Ann’s words send a chill down Ryuji’s spine, he’s considered that theory before. Before meeting Akira he had given in, accepted his new life as a ferocious, untamed beast. Living like that had been exhausting, and it almost had completely broken him. If Akira hadn’t shown up when he did, Ryuji likely would have never come back from it.

“I hate how you’re always right,” Ryuji sighs, smiling despite himself. “Akira’s been... Amazin’. I wouldn’t be where I am today without him, but he’s like me. He can only ever see things in black and white. We’re either human or we aren’t.”

“There’s no reason you can’t be both,” Ann insists. “No one is perfect. We all have dark sides of ourselves that we don’t want anyone else to see. _That’s_ what makes you human, the ability to realize that about yourself and do good in spite of it.”

“Fuck, I missed you.”

Ann laughs, and the sound is music to Ryuji’s ears, “I missed you too.”

“I gotta talk to Akira,” Ryuji says, nodding his head towards Ann’s collection of ‘clues’. “Find out what all this is. It’s effin’ weird that he would do this. Once I have time to ask him, I’ll contact you.”

“I don’t think there will be any need for that,” Ann says, staring at something outside the window. When Ryuji turns to look, he finds a pair of red eyes watching them from the treeline. “That’s a bit unnerving.”

“Nah, he’s real gentle. Do you wanna meet him?”

“Are you sure? I mean, is it okay?”

“Yeah. He wouldn’t be standin’ there where you could see him if he didn’t want you to see him. Come on,” Ryuji stands up and offers Ann one of his hands. Together they step out of the camper and into the sun. Akira remains in the shade of the trees, avoiding the sunlight as best he can. “We gotta go to him. His skin and eyes are sensitive to the light.”

“Is it like the movies? Do they burn?” Ann asks with a childish sense of glee. “Sorry, I had to ask.”

“Nah, it’s more like he’ll sunburn.”

“A vampire that sunburns.”  
  
“I know,” Ryuji snorts in fond amusement. They cross the yard to where Akira’s waiting. He’s staring down at the ground, but as they approach, he looks up and smiles. Not a full flash of his teeth, but a little upturn of his lips. “I thought you went to visit the witch.”

“No,” Akira says with a small shake of his head. “I was on a walk. I didn’t expect to see you back so soon.”

“Me either. We can talk about that later though,” Ryuji nods towards Ann. “What’s with all those clues you were givin’ her?”

“I wanted to do something to make you happy,” Akira confesses in a soft voice. “You were different after we came back from your hometown. I could tell that you missed it.”

“I know, but... Innit this dangerous?”

“Oh yeah.”

“Then why?”

“I sensed that we could trust her,” Akira says, turning his attention to Ann. “It’s nice to see you again.”

“Likewise,” Ann replies. Her hand is stiff inside Ryuji’s. Not from fear, if he’s reading right, she’s embarrassed about something. “Mr. Knight in Shining Armor turned out to be a vampire. It’s just my luck.”

“You’re not the kind of girl who needs saving, remember?”

“Touche.”

“What?” Ryuji glances between the two, baffled by their odd exchange. Oh well, he supposes it’s not something he’s meant to know. “Ann, this is Akira, my uh... Well... Boyfriend.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Ann says with a smile, extending her opposite hand out. Akira eyes it skeptically, nervously. His eyes flick up towards Ryuji for encouragement, and then he reaches forward to shake her hand.

“It’s nice to meet you too,” Akira says. “I’ve heard a lot about you from Ryuji. I’m sorry about the... The way I invited you up here. It was a bit of a test.”

“I don’t mind. It was fun figuring everything out.”

Ryuji’s heart feels full inside his chest as he watches Ann and Akira continue to talk to one another. He doesn’t pay too much attention to what they’re saying, too busy standing in awe of what Akira’s done for him. The vampire who had rejected human society was now joking with Ann like an old friend.

 _I love you,_ Ryuji thinks privately. Once they’re alone, and away from Ann’s teasing, he’ll tell Akira exactly that.

* * * 

Ann leaves a few hours before sundown, ensuring that there’s still light in the sky for her drive home. They come up with an agreement to have her visit on a weekly basis. Provided that there isn’t a full moon and more often if they can figure out a way to cut her commute.

She and Ryuji spend a long moment hugging before she goes. It helps them to rekindle the deep connection that they once had. Not that Ryuji had ever fully believed it was gone. They have rebuilt it and made it into something stronger.  
  
“I can’t believe you,” Ryuji tells Akira as they watch the sun disappear behind the mountains. They’re huddled together on the roof of the camper. Akira’s head is resting against Ryuji’s shoulder. “You have no idea how happy I am.”

“I have an _idea_ of it, a vague sense of it. You’ve been smiling all day,” Akira says in a low and satisfied voice. “Seeing you like that made it worth it.”

“How long have you been planning this?”

“Pretty much since we got back.”

“You were always dead set against me reconnecting with anyone from my past. What changed?” Ryuji leans his face against the crown of Akira’s head and sighs.

“I care about you more than I care about my own... Rules,” Akira attempts to explain. “Staying away from humans is what _I_ do to stay safe, but that doesn’t mean you have to be so strict. I never want you to feel trapped or like your something that I’m trying to own.”

“Fuck. You’re so good at this.”

“At what?”

“Just... Bein’ a good partner. You’re respectful of my needs and that means so much to me.”

“You do as much in return,” Akira assures him. He lifts one of Ryuji’s hands up, kissing gently over the back of it. “I can’t promise that I can give you back the life you had before, but maybe this is a compromise. I also think... It might be a cure.”

“A cure?” Ryuji lifts his head to look at Akira. “For me bein’ a werewolf?”

“Not a complete one. I think it will keep you from losing your human half.”

“Explain it.”

“Well, you had a normal shift this cycle. Right?”

“Right.”

“There’s an old legend that Takemi told me about, one from England. If someone who truly loves and cares for a werewolf calls it by its human name, it can reverse or stop the transformation. Ann called out to you that night. When she saw you behind the bar.”

“Yeah, she did,” Ryuji says thoughtfully. “I wasn’t shiftin’ though.”

“You should have been. It was the eclipse that kept you from turning.”

“Huh. So you think that that’s why my transformation was more normal this time? Because she called my name...?”

“It’s only a theory,” Akira admits, “One I want to continue to explore.”  
  
“I knew you had alternative motives.”

“The motive to make you happy comes first,” Akira says, lifting his head up to meet Ryuji’s eyes. “I thought if that legend turned out to be true, it would be something extra.”

“Wouldn’t it work if you called me by my name?” Ryuji asks. “I mean, you uh, l-love and care about me.”

“I imagine it only works if they’re human.”

“Oh, I guess that makes sense.”

“I would never put Ann in a precarious situation,” Akira goes on to say. “But I wish we could test it out during a full moon.”

“It’d be too dangerous,” Ryuji says with a deep scowl. “Besides, if I become human again, you’ll have to leave.”

“Would that be such a bad thing?”

“What the hell? Of course it would be!”

Akira leans his head back over onto Ryuji’s shoulder, “I’m glad you’re so committed to me.”

“’Course I am,” Ryuji laughs weakly, disliking the conversation’s depressing turn. “You gotta stop waitin’ for me to walk out on you, because it ain’t happenin’. I know you got this thing about being broody and lonely... But you’ve got me, man. I’m here right now.”

“Well, in that case,” Akira pulls away from Ryuji to jump down off of the camper. “Let’s go inside so I can take full advantage of your presence.”

“It’s not sexy when you say stuff like that, ya know,” Ryuji teases, even though he’s already flinging himself to the ground. He lands beside Akira and their bodies gravitate towards one another. “So which is it? You want blood or...?”

“I want both.”

“Greedy.”

“I don’t see you complaining,” Akira says in a low tone. He pushes Ryuji against the side of the camper and then kisses him roughly.

 _Oh,_ Ryuji thinks. _It’s going to be one of those nights._

Akira pulls back to growl his next set of words into Ryuji’s ear, “Get inside and get undressed.”  
  
* * *   
  
Ryuji lays next to Akira on the bed, eyes shut, waiting for his breathing to even out. The vampire rolls over on top of him so that he can place a half dozen soft kisses all over Ryuji’s face.

Despite the threats and posturing of earlier, Akira had been surprisingly gentle. All the fire and passion gave out midway and switched gears. The word ‘worshipful’ comes to mind. He’s doing plenty of that now as he murmurs praises against Ryuji’s neck.

“You’re perfect,” Akira whispers. He kisses over the fang marks he left behind the night before, and it makes Ryuji’s face flush hot. “You’re so good.”

“Stop it,” Ryuji complains, though in actuality he’s eating up all the attention. He’ll never admit that, not in a million years. Which, if things keep going the way they are, might be how long he and Akira get to stay together. It reminds Ryuji that earlier he had something he wanted to tell him. Now seems like as good a time as any. He breathes deep to calm his nerves.

“Yo,” a wonderful start, “I gotta say somethin’.”

“Alright,” Akira pulls away, blinking at him with wide eyes.

“I uh,” Ryuji swallows hard and begins again. “I love you.”

Akira’s entire face lights up and a huge grin spreads out over it. He kisses Ryuji roughly on the mouth, then the jaw, and then the bite on his neck. Laughing against one of Ryuji’s collar bones, unable to fully contain his happiness, he says, “I love you too.”

“Oh, trust me,” Ryuji says in an amused tone. He can feel Akira’s cock stiffening from where it’s pressed up against his hip. “I can tell.”

“There’s no better way to show it, right?”

“Stop sayin’ weird things. I’ll throw you off the bed.”

Akira breathes out a soft rumble of laughter as he asks, “Alright, are you going to help me with it?”

“Hell yes.”  
  
* * *  
  
Ann keeps her promise to visit and on her fourth trip up she brings all kinds of goodies along with her. New clothes, toiletries, vegetables, snacks, it’s all things Ryuji’s had to go without. It’s been so many years, he forgot the simple joys of having shampoo or toothpaste.

“You don’t gotta keep bringing this stuff,” Ryuji tells her, but Ann’s quick to shrug his concerns away.

“A lot of it was layin’ around Shiho and I’s apartment anyway,” Ann says, passing a box of canned goods off to Akira.

“I know money’s been tight for you guys-”

“Ryuji, you’re out here eating fish jerky day to day and uh... Tree bark, or something, I don’t know. The point is, this isn’t any trouble. I’m glad I can help you out. Besides, some of this came from your mom’s house.”

“Ma’s house? Wait-... You didn’t-”

“Of course I didn’t tell her about you. I said I had a friend who needed some things. She was happy to help.”

“How, uh... How is she by the way?” Ryuji wonders in a soft voice. “Every time you come up here I want to ask. I keep chickening out.”

“She’s doing good,” Ann shrugs as she props her hip against the side of her car. “She gets lonely during the holidays, so she keeps busy. Shiho and I drop in at least once a week to see her. It would be more, but we’re both working a lot of hours from now until Christmas.”

“You should go,” Akira says, butting into the conversation. Ryuji’s mind does a backflip as shock floods his veins.

“I can’t do that!” Ryuji exclaims, horrified that Akira would even bring it up.

“Why not?”

“Wh-... What do you mean ‘why not’?! You know why not! She thinks I’m _dead_. I can’t show up on her doorstep like; surprise! Just kidding! I was alive this whole damn time!”

“You would have to be gentle about it,” Akira presses. “Your last two full moons have been normal. Once the sun comes up, you turn back. My theory seems more and more likely.”

“What? The thing about Ann callin’ me by my name?”

“Not so much that as,” Akira trails off, looking thoughtful. When he speaks again, it’s slow. He’s trying to think of how to phrase everything. “We’ve been going about this all the wrong way. The more you live and act like a human, the less the beast side of you can pull its influence.”

“You lost me,” Ryuji grumbles, though he thinks he might understand. “When we first met, you said that werewolves can’t live around humans. That it’s too dangerous. I could bite or scratch someone.”

“See Ann off and we’ll talk more about it after,” Akira excuses himself.

“I don’t know if I’m in a position to say this, but I agree with him,” Ann says. Ryuji turns around to stare at her, eyes wide with disbelief. “Look, I get the vibe that he doesn’t always tell you everything. Like he’s holding information back.”

“Why would he do that?” Ryuji glances over his shoulder, certain that Akira can hear them talking. He ushers Ann towards the treeline. “Walk with me.”

They go off into the woods, down a path that only Ryuji can see. Ann follows him without question, and he knows that that’s her greatest indication of trust. If he were a worse person, a worse werewolf, it would be easy to lead her into danger. Or death. But he’s not, and Ann seems to perceive that. She’s never given any sign that she fears him. Even around Akira she acts comfortable.  
“I know liars when I see them,” Ann begins again, linking her arm through one of Ryuji’s. He pulls her closer, hoping to provide some extra warmth. Her cheeks and the back of her ears are beginning to flush from the cold. “It’s not out of malice, but he doesn’t always tell you the truth.”

“There might not _be_ any truth, though. All this werewolf and vampire and supernatural stuff, none of it makes any sense,” Ryuji insists. “My life doesn’t play by normal rules. You get that, right?”

“Even if that’s true, he’s not being honest. You have to call him out on it.”

“...And then what? Say he is lyin’, it doesn’t change anything. I can’t go back to being a human.”

“No, you can’t be human again,” Ann agrees. “I know that, but you don’t need to be. You’re only a wolf for one night a month. The rest of the time you’re just you. You could easily split your life between here and home.”

“What?” Ryuji stops walking so that he can look at her. “What do you mean? I can’t go back down there. I’m s’posed to be dead.”

“People come back from impossible situations. We can make something up.”

“And what about Akira? Huh? He can’t be around humans.”

“That’s one of those things you need to talk to him about. It doesn’t add up. I’m human and he’s fine with me,” Ann crosses her arms over her chest, expression cross. “That night you two came into town you were in a bar with half a dozen other people.”

“He can be around them, but,” Ryuji rushes to correct, “It’s dangerous. If someone was to hurt themselves, y’know, bleed or somethin’, he would go after them.”

“A vampire who’s lived for as long as he has definitely has control of themselves.”

“What are ya?! Some kind of expert?! You read a few crap-ass fanfics written by high school kids and now you think you know stuff!”

“Quit living in denial,” Ann challenges, stepping up so that she’s eye to eye with him. “I can see it all over your face, you agree with me. What I’m saying makes sense. Denying it won’t make it go away.”

“Ann, stop,” Ryuji grumbles, taking a few steps back to put distance between them. The problem is _she’s right_. He has sometimes doubted the things that Akira has told him. Back when it was the two of them it didn’t matter so much, but with Ann involved it’s different. “Fine. I know that he lies to me but he’s not doin’ it to hurt me.”

“A lie is a lie, even with good intentions,” Ann presses. “If he wants to keep you, then he has to be honest. Encourage him to do the right thing and talk to you about it.”

Ryuji sighs a long drawn-out exhale, before smiling fondly at Ann, “You always bully me into stuff.”

“Or maybe you always let me win arguments,” Ann shoots back with a grin. “Also, if you ever decide you want to reconnect with your mom, I’ll help you.”

“Thanks. I’ll think about it.”  
  
* * *  
  
Akira waits anxiously inside the camper for Ryuji to return. The minutes pass like hours, a feeling he hasn’t experienced for some time. In fact, time’s been going faster than usual, especially since he and Ryuji have become a couple. Days that used to seem boring and endless are now exciting and full of possibilities. Akira has his rose-colored glasses working overtime, but he can’t help it.

Their life together will soon come to an end. He has to enjoy what he can, but unfortunately, that doesn’t include the talk they’re about to have. Akira knows that everything he has to say, every lie he has to reveal, or truth he has to tell, could make or break things. Ryuji might never forgive him, but the guilt is becoming more than Akira can shoulder.

“Yo, I’m back,” Ryuji steps up into the camper, throwing loose flakes of snow from his hair. “There’s a bit of a snowstorm startin’ up out there. I hope Ann gets home alright.”

“I’m sure she will,” Akira says. Is it just his imagination, or is his own voice shaking? He gestures for Ryuji to take a seat across from him at the table. “Let’s have that talk.”

For a few minutes, neither one of them speaks, and it causes the tension in the air to flourish. Akira can feel how nervous and uncertain Ryuji is, and it’s a sure bet that that notion flows in reverse.

“You go first,” Akira offers, breaking the ice. Ryuji releases a breath he had been holding and then nods.

“Okay, so like... What’s this about goin’ to see my mom?” Ryuji's right leg bobs up and down under the table. An overflow of his anxious energy. “All this time you’ve been preaching about how dangerous and stupid it would be for me to do that. You said it could cause her to have a breakdown.”

“It could,” Akira tells him honestly. “It’s a risk you take when you ‘come back from the dead’.”

“Is that why you never went home to your parents?”

“It’s one of the reasons, yes. They wouldn’t have been able to understand. In those days people were burned for things like that.”

“Okay,” Ryuji’s eyes flicker up to his face and then withdraw. “What changed your mind?”

“Some of it is because of Ann,” Akira begins. “She literally brought you back from the brink of a permanent transformation.”

“Yeah, but it might not be that way forever. What if I start changing for days at a time like before?”

“Then we’ll figure it out when it happens. Right now, being around people is a good thing for you. You miss your mother more than anybody else. I want you to have the chance to reconnect with her.”

“I don’t want to do anything that will hurt her or set her back,” Ryuji murmurs.  
  
“Give her some credit. She’s your mother. If anyone can make sense of your situation, it will be her.”

“C’mon, man,” Ryuji sighs, shoulders sagging. “If you keep pushing me like that, it’s gonna make me believe it’s possible.”

“It is possible,” Akira presses. He reaches across the table to cover Ryuji’s hands with his own. “I always promised you I would help you find a cure, right? I think this might be it.”

“You think or you know?” Ryuji asks with a hard edge to his voice. His yellow eyes flick up, and for the first time, he looks at Akira like he actually _sees_ him. Sees who he is, what he is, and the lies he’s told. His fists go rigid under Akira’s palms before pulling away. “I need you to be straight with me. Tell me everything.”  
  
Akira sits back in his seat and turns his head to look out the nearby window. The snow outside is falling in earnest. Thousands upon thousands of tiny snowflakes that will pill up one by one to form thick sheets. On their own, they aren’t much, a drop of crystallized water, but together they can create something larger. Akira likens them to all the lies he’s told Ryuji recently, or from when they first met. They have built up into snowdrifts, and if he wants to save his relationship, he needs to get out a shovel and go dig.

“I have to start at the beginning,” Akira whispers, turning to face Ryuji. “With my beginning.”

“Ya mean, like, how you became a vampire?” Ryuji’s eyebrows rise in surprise. “You’ve never told me about it.”

“It’s not a happy story, but an important one.”

“Alright, I’m listening.”

“The world back then differed greatly from the one you know today. People worked, or they died. Worked, and sometimes still died. You didn’t have options. My father was a well-known port master down at the docks. Most likely would have remained in that job for his entire life, but an injury forced him to quit. Our family fell on hard times, so I had to pick up the slack. I found work in an iron mine.”

Akira closes his eyes as he recalls the memory. It’s one of the few that stayed vivid, a product of strong emotional reactions. He can still feel the chill of the caves, the strain of the low lighting, the jarring sound of pickaxes. Every night when he would return home, his body would ache from the physical stress. His lungs would burn from the air pollution.  
  
“I worked there for four years,” Akira goes on to say, “We were mining iron to fill the national supply, so the pay was decent. Eventually, I earned a promotion. I was just one week out from starting a job as a distribution liaison. At my age it was time to think about getting married, settling down, and I had the means to finally do so.”

“Marriage, huh?” Ryuji murmurs, his voice borderline skeptical. “Can’t see you as a married man.”

“I couldn’t either, to be honest, but that’s the expectations that people had back then.”

“So what happened?”

“There was a cave-in at the mine,” Akira opens his eyes to glance at Ryuji. He’s invested in the story, leaning forward with his elbows up on the tabletop. “Some of the men died right away, crushed to death, or worse. The rest of us got trapped in a small cavern off the main shaft. Five including me.”

“I was hurt, along with two others. They didn’t make it past the first hour, bleeding out despite our efforts to save them. My injuries were less severe, but nothing that could last the twelve plus hours it would take for a crew to dig us out. One of the other men I was with; it was like he had gone crazy. He was screaming, trying to force his way out. The pile shifted and fell on him.”

Ryuji winces, “Damn.”

“It was awful,” Akira confesses in a low voice. “He might’ve made it had he not panicked.”

“I’m sorry, man.”

“It was a long time ago.”

“Doesn’t make it okay,” Ryuji says, reaching across the table to take hold of one of Akira’s hands. The sudden contact startles Akira and without meaning to he jumps. “You’re good, I’ve got you.”

“Sorry,” Akira murmurs. “It’s been a while since I’ve talked about this.”

“I see that. I’ve got you. Take your time.”  
  
Akira tightens his grip around Ryuji’s hand. He sits quietly for a few minutes as the memories flow inside his head. “The final man, Goro Akechi, was quiet until that point. Aloof. He came to sit down beside me and with little prompting told me his life’s story. I thought it was odd, but maybe he felt he needed to talk about it, in case we didn’t make it out.”

“So I sat and listened. Not that I had a choice in the matter. His father had abandoned him before birth. Then his mother had committed suicide when he was very young. Most of his life had he’d spent living in an orphanage or working hard labor. Not at all a unique story for those times, but then everything he said became strange.”

“Strange? How?” Ryuji asks.

“He talked on and on about how he had found the man he believed was his father. How that man had given him a deadly gift and that someday he would kill him with it. I thought either he was crazy or I had lost too much blood. Or both. Then all at once, he stopped talking.”

“I was tired,” Akira recalls. Ryuji’s thumb begins to lightly stroke his wrist, a comforting touch. Akira clings to it. “He bent down to whisper in my ear, to tell me he was going to save me. I felt a pain in my neck, my wrists. This strange man was biting me, and I couldn’t comprehend a reason for it outside of insanity. I supposed it didn’t matter because I would be dead soon. I spiked a fever and the rest of what happened is a blur.”

“So you died down there,” Ryuji whispers. “Well, I mean, like, technically.”

“Yeah, technically I did. My next memory is of waking up inside a small dark space. A casket. I had to claw my way out of it and up to the surface.”

“They buried you?!” Ryuji exclaims. “Can’t blame them,” Akira says with a wry laugh. “I was dead.” “That’s freakin’ scary.”

“It was,” Akira agrees. “It was dark when I emerged. Can you guess who was waiting for me?”

“That... Goro Akechi guy?” Ryuji tightens his grip on Akira’s hand. “So he was the vampire who turned you. Why though?”

“He wanted me to help him destroy his father. I wasn’t crazy about the idea of killing someone but I felt indebted to Akechi, so I went with him.”

“So... You did it then. You killed Shido?”

“Yes. I did.”

“I got it,” Ryuji says with a long sigh. “I mean, I knew you had killed people before. You said as much when we met. It’s weird to hear you talk about it like this.”

“It’s all I knew,” Akira whispers, his chest heavy with guilt. “That doesn’t excuse what I did but it’s all I knew to do at the time. I had no idea that vampires could take blood without killing. Or that they could find alternative means. I spent the first decade of my life with Akechi, and then the coven he formed.”  
  
“How’d you end up alone?”

“There were a lot of reasons. I left the coven to be on my own for a while, drifted in and out of it for a few more years. Traveled from country to country. It had always been my father’s dream to travel, so I thought I would live it for him. During one of the world wars, maybe the first... No, the second, Akechi’s coven had somewhat dissolved. He had gone off somewhere and the last I heard he was living underground.”

“Wait, so this guy is still out there?!”

Akira nods, “He is.”

“You said coven, so like, a group of vampires,” Ryuji says. “You mentioned when we met that yours had kicked you out because you didn’t want to drink human blood anymore.”

“I did,” Akira confirms. “Some of those from Akechi’s coven and another one in the area had sort of melded together. For my kind, sometimes there’s safety in numbers. It gives us order and a set of guidelines by which to survive, but it’s not for everyone. To live by my own morals, I had to leave.”  
“I was alone for a long time before meeting you. Thirty, forty years,” Akira says, halfway chuckling at Ryuji’s shocked expression. “For a vampire, that amount is very short.”

“All this time I’ve been datin’ a senior citizen,” Ryuji remarks, perhaps to lighten the dour mood. It’s a positive sign at least, one that makes Akira hopeful. “So then you met me.”

“Then I met you,” Akira agrees. “Which brings me to the point of my story. I, despite the way I seem, am not a living thing. I’m not dead either. Sort of this strange in-between. You’re different from me, you live and breathe, there’s blood in your veins. You’re immortal only in the sense that you appear not to age.”

“Wait, so like, you’re saying I _am_ aging?”

“Yes, but at an extremely slow rate.”

“Oh shit,” Ryuji gasps, grabbing at his chest. “So how long until I get all old and wrinkly?”

“Centuries,” Akira assures him. “Unless, of course, you find yourself cured.”

“So how’s that the point of your story?”

“Vampires, because of their lack of aging and need for blood, live underground. We stay away from the human population to keep ourselves safe and to have order,” Akira explains. “We’re migratory, moving around to avoid detection. We have policies in place to take care of those who call too much attention to themselves or try to defect.”

“Like vampire police?” Ryuji wonders. “Sounds crazy.”

“It kind of is,” Akira agrees with a half shrug. “The bottom line is that vampires have been able to maintain some sense of order by staying away from humans. Werewolves live among human populations. They have a need for family, a desire for a ‘pack’.”

“Wait, what?” Ryuji’s eyes narrow as he looks at Akira. “You said werewolves live alone in order to protect people. We’re like, virus carriers.”

“I lied.”

“What...?”

“You can only pass on the curse when you’re in your bestial form. As a human you’re completely harmless. At least in terms of spreading your lycanthropy to others.”

“That’s not what you told me,” Ryuji murmurs, retracting his hand again. His expression is that of a lost child’s and it causes Akira’s entire body to scream with protest. If he goes any farther, he might lose Ryuji sooner rather than later. “I mean, I had always kinda assumed I needed to stay away from people. That I was dangerous to them. Why didn’t you tell me otherwise?”

“You were living in the woods, alone, and with something I wanted,” Akira tells him. “A naïve werewolf would make a perfect source of guilt-free food. At least, that was my original belief. I was lonely too. I felt you could also provide me with loyal companionship. The companionship I can’t have from other vampires or humans.”

“What do you mean?”

“I could befriend you without the vampire preamble. You weren’t expecting me to act or behave to preserve the good of the group. I could worry about my own needs and desires, as long as I kept you close by. I also admit that I’ve become dependent on your blood.”

“So drink from animals or somethin’,” Ryuji spits, his face becoming flushed with anger. “I’m not some tool to lessen your guilt. I can’t believe you would effin’ use me like that. I thought everything you were telling me was to help me! I spent five freakin’ years out here alone. When you met me, you could have told me I could go back to my home, to my friends and family, and you didn’t.”

“Give me time to fix it,” Akira begs. He glances up to meet Ryuji’s eyes and in them he can see the beast lingering below the surface, its rage simmering. “I can’t change the choices I made in the beginning, or force you to trust me again. Or even to forgive me, but I am trying to do right by you now. I want to get you as close to home as you can be.”

“Why the hell would you bother?!”

“That night we went out together, to your hometown, I realized how big of a mistake I was making. How much you deserved to have back all the things you had lost. Your mother, your friends, the chance at a normal life. I didn’t have the strength at the time to give them to you,” Akira pauses, “I needed more time... I wasn’t ready to say goodbye.”

“Whoa, what?” Ryuji’s shoulders relax as he absorbs Akira’s words. “Goodbye? Who said anything about goodbye?”

“Yes, in the beginning, I used you. Then, like the age-old cliché, I fell for you. I saw you as someone I wanted to spend my life with. The problem is, you can’t have a foot in both worlds. You can’t return to your human existence and stay with me.”

“Why not? It’s not like I’m gonna start livin’ at home or getting’ a job or whatever.”

“You could. In time, once you’ve kind of assimilated into that world, you could have both.”

“Okay, fine, but that doesn’t change anything. If I lived in town, you could live with me,” Ryuji insists, still so very naïve about the way of things. The reality of loving and losing that Akira’s had to experience time and time again over the long years. “You could stay inside during the day and drink my blood at night or whatever. We could even come up here and use the camper on full moon nights. Right?”

“You’ve been thinking about it, returning home,” Akira points out. “How you would pull it off and what it would take.”

“W-Well yeah, maybe I have been. I didn’t think it would happen though.”

“If you go back, I can’t go with you.”

“But why?” Ryuji demands, sounding both angry and hurt. Confused about which feeling he should let take control. “Ann is fine with it. Ma would probably get over it too. Especially if you weren’t hurtin’ anyone. Ann even pointed it out to me today, that you didn’t have a problem bein’ around anyone when we went out.”

“Haven’t you heard the saying ‘trouble breeds company’?” Akira shoots back, though it’s with significantly less fire. “When vampires try to pass as humans, they attract misfortune. That’s where the rumors and legends about the sun come from. My kind is only ever meant to live in the darkness, in the shadows.”

“Sounds like a bunch of bullshit if you ask me. Some stupid garbage that you tell yourself so you never have to commit to tryin’ to be happy.”

“Maybe, but it keeps people safe. People like your family. Like Ann and your mother. I’ve killed before, Ryuji. Is that the kind of man you want to bring home to them?!”

“I’m goin’ for a run,” all at once Ryuji rises from his seat and flies out the door. Akira makes absolutely no moves to stop him, knowing that he’ll be back once he’s calmed down. That, and he doesn’t have the energy for it.

Vampires don’t cry, so instead Akira sits still and stares at the cheap paper on the walls of the camper. His heart feels like it’s shattering inside him. All he can do is sigh.  
  
* * *   
  
Ryuji finds himself at Ann’s apartment, having searched half the city to find her scent. Needless to say, she’s shocked to see him standing on her doorstep, though not nearly as shocked as Shiho. The two women invite him inside and listen quietly as he comes undone over all that Akira told him.

He still can’t understand the vampire’s reasoning, because for him it seems so simple. They care about each other, they’ve lived together long enough for it to turn into a romantic relationship, and the next step is just... The next step in any relationship. Meeting the family, moving in together, building a normal life. All the things Ryuji never thought he would have are in reach, and Akira doesn’t want to come along with him.

To make matters worse, his concerns don’t little sense. At least not in the way a normal person would. Darkness and danger and the threat of something that may or may not exist. None of these seem like good reasons to Ryuji. He knows it’s likely coming from a place of fear. Akira has experienced so much more than he has, but not easy to justify it.   
Ann and Shiho somehow convince him to give Akira one more chance.

Exhausted and confused, Ryuji returns home the next morning.  
  
* * *

The day after is the most awkward Ryuji has ever felt around Akira. The two of them are avoiding one another, keeping a respectful distance. They don’t speak much, and they specifically don’t talk about the argument. If it can even be called that. Ryuji isn’t sure what qualifies, as he only knows the shouting matches of his parents. Or the occasional bratty spats he would have with Ann.

Whatever happened between him and Akira, it’s nothing like those times.

Ryuji can only think to describe it like a sore tooth. The first day is the worst. By day two, the pain is better managed. Day three is acceptance. By four you’ve learned to mostly ignore it. You chew on the opposite side and avoid anything that could cause irritation. But the pain is always there in the back of your mind, threatening to return at any moment.

Day four lasts for a full week and then,

“I’m scared of losing you,” Akira admits, out of the blue, while he and Ryuji sit beside the campfire. Ryuji is busy preparing dinner, so he nearly drops his whisk from shock. It would have been tragic, considering it’s his only one. 

“I know you are,” Ryuji tells him, glancing up. Akira doesn’t bother meeting his gaze, content to stare listlessly at the ground. If he were human, Ryuji might be worried that he was coming down with something. He’s been acting strange, even by the standards that his personality had preset. Ryuji puts aside his meal for a moment to move closer, sitting so close that their arms and shoulders brush. “Can you look at me for a second?”

“Probably not.”

“C’mon, man. Please?”

“I’m going back inside,” Akira stands up and Ryuji is quick to follow. They end up over by the camper and that’s where Ryuji corners him.

“We can’t keep goin’ on like this,” Ryuji snaps, tired of the tension and the silence. “You gotta talk to me. We have to work this out.”

Akira says nothing, instead opting to let his body do the talking. He leads Ryuji into the camper and to the back bedroom. They kiss and it’s angry and somewhat dissatisfying, but it gives them something to do between shedding layers of clothes. Akira lays back on the bed and then pulls Ryuji down on top of him, implying a switch.

Before Ryuji can ask him if he’s sure, all Akira says is, “I want you.” 

Who is Ryuji to deny him?   
  
* * *

“I’ve made a decision,” Akira murmurs later that evening. It’s long after they’ve had several rounds of 'deep discussions'. Ryuji glances at him, reaching out to run a hand through his wavy black hair, admiring how soft it is. “I want to try.”

“Try?” Ryuji asks, his brain still too full of endorphins. He doesn’t have any room for things like higher levels of thought.

“I want to try living with you. In the human world.”

“What?” Ryuji shifts so he can face Akira more fully, to examine his eyes. They look almost black in the darkness, only red when there’s light to bounce off of them. “You swear? You’re not just sayin’ that?”

“I’ll need some time to work up to it,” Akira presses. “You have to promise me that you can give me that time.”

“Of course, man. Whatever you need. I just-... Are you sure?”

“I’m sure. I’m tired of always fighting with myself on what’s right and what’s wrong. What’s safe and what isn’t. All these years and I’ve never found someone I could be with the way I am with you. That has to be some kind of sign. Right?”

“Definitely,” Ryuji breathes, agreeing wholeheartedly. “We can work on the rest together, okay?”

“And I’ll strive to be more honest.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

Akira kisses him and all feels right with the world.  
  
* * *

In the weeks leading up to New Year’s Eve, Ryuji splits his time between Ann’s apartment and the camper. Akira walks him dutifully to town to drop him off and then returns a few days later to pick him back up. Despite all his strides, Akira isn’t ready to do any more than that. Ryuji isn’t about to rush him, not that he has much of a mind for it.

With both Akira and Ann’s encouragement, he’s agreed to finally see his mother. With the full moon falling a couple of days out from Christmas, they’ve decided on New Year’s Eve. It’s a night she normally spends alone. Ann has managed to scheme her way into having herself and Shiho over to join in the countdown. Unbeknownst to Ryuji’s mother, he’ll be along for the ride.

“You’re going to be fine,” Akira encourages him. They’re standing at their usual drop off point, waiting for Ann to arrive to pick him up. As it was back during Halloween, Ryuji’s nerves are getting the best of him. His body is shaking with anticipation and anxiety. He’s tried several times to blame it on the cold weather. Akira never calls him out on it, and that’s appreciated.

“I know that,” Ryuji says back, leaning against Akira’s side. Mindlessly Akira’s arm slips around his waist to pull him closer. Even with no additional body heat from the vampire, Ryuji feels warmer. It’s a false sense of security, as Ann’s car comes into view.

“I’m jealous,” Akira admits in a quiet tone, catching Ryuji’s attention. For the past several weeks he’s been making strides towards trying to be more honest. Often confessing little things that he might not usually own up to. This must be one of those confessions. “I wish it were me taking you instead of Ann and Shiho.”

“What? Why?”

“I just do,” Akira mumbles, looking quite sheepish. “Not long ago you used to be happy whenever I would do small things for you. Like bringing back fish or grapes or whatever else.”

“Those things still make me happy,” Ryuji assures him, kissing Akira lightly on the cheek. “You’ve been workin’ real hard these past couple weeks. It hasn’t all gone by without me noticin’. I’m gonna be back tomorrow evenin’ and then we can have our own New Year’s thing. Just us. Like last year, remember?”

“We went up the mountain to watch the lights,” Akira recalls. “I don’t think they’ll be there this year.”

“That’s okay, we’ll find somethin’ to do.”

As Ann pulls up in the car and parks, Akira’s grip on Ryuji tightens.

“I’ll be back,” Ryuji soothes, turning to face Akira so he can kiss him. It’s embarrassing. Moreso because he can hear Ann and Shiho exclaiming in the car, but he does it anyway. He knows how important it is to Akira.

“I love you,” Akira whispers as they pull away. Ryuji’s face flushes red and he all but trips over himself to turn towards the car. Akira holds fast to him, refusing to let go until he replies.

“C’mon man,” Ryuji grumbles, smiling as he says over his shoulder. “I love you too, but I gotta go now. Okay? See you tomorrow night.”

“See you.”

Ryuji pulls free and runs to hop in the back of Ann’s car. Both girls whip around to look at him and he’s quick to scold them for it, “Stop gawkin’ at me and get driving. We gotta get to my mom’s house before she gets worried.”

“You mean before Akira gets ahold of you again,” Ann teases, earning an elbow to the ribs from Shiho. Ryuji laughs despite himself.

As they drive out of the parking lot, he glances back. Akira’s still standing there, watching them leave.

* * * 

“I can't do it,” Ryuji says as Shiho pulls the car up into his mother's driveway. He's been somewhere between bouncing in his seat excited and ready to throw up the entire ride. 

“Yes you can,” Shiho tells him gently, while Ann takes a completely different approach. 

“You're going in there,” Ann says, jumping out of the car. She descends on his side of the door, ripping it open before his hand can find the lock. “Come on. Get up.” 

“I can't,” Ryuji insists again, his stomach doing little flip flops. “Ann, I mean it, I'll throw up.” 

“Then throw up inside. Come on.” 

Somehow Ryuji manages to force himself out of the car. Ann and Shiho both flank him, carrying dishes of food that they brought with them. At the door, Shiho rings the bell, and it echos in a familiar tone throughout the house. Ryuji begins tapping his right foot, something to work a bit of his energy out. Ann glances back at him, looking a bit more sympathetic than she had been by the car. 

“It'll be okay,” Ann reiterates to him. Inside he can hear his mother approaching. 

“Hey! Come inside and-” the door opens and Ryuji's mother stands before him. Her brown eyes shoot wide at the sight of him and she half stumbles half steps back into the house. Ryuji shoots forward to catch her, worried she'll fall. “I-I-I don't-... I don't know-... Ryuji?” 

“It's me,” Ryuji breathes and all at once his vision begins to blur. By instinct, she reaches out a hand to wipe the tears away. As it turns out, it's Ryuji who needs someone to catch him. He ends up on the ground with a hand over his face, trying to work out his emotions as best he can. Though her heart is racing and he can tell she has burning questions, his mother remains calmer than he. She kneels down beside him. 

“It's okay,” she whispers in a watery voice as she strokes his hair. “It's okay, Ryuji. You're safe.” 

“We'll be in the kitchen,” Ann says in the background but Ryuji barely hears her. His mind is in overdrive, trying to deal with being home for the first time in eight years. 

“I've got so much I have to tell you,” Ryuji manages, catching hold of his mother's hands. They're shaking slightly, a mirror of his own earlier in the evening. “Can we talk?” 

“Of course we can,” she breathes. “We can talk for as long as you like.” 

* * * 

Akira stares up at the sky, watching as wispy clouds drift overhead, obscuring the stars. He's been standing at the edge of the empty parking lot for several hours now, as the snow falls. A fair layer of it has build up on his head and his shoulders. He'd brush it off if it was more of a bother. The headlights of a car come into view and he takes a deep breath. 

_Finally,_ he thinks, shifting from one foot to the other and back again. 

The back passenger door opens and this time, Akira climbs inside. 

“It's been a long time,” a familiar voice says. The brunette man sitting in the driver's seat turns around to look at him, smiling warmly. “How are you?” 

“Drive,” Akira tells him sharply. 

Akechi laughs, “Why the hurry?” 

“Go, before I change my mind.” 

“Whatever.” 

Akira glances back, once, just to see the trees. They stand dark and silent, no more than shadows in the dim light.   
  
* * *  
  
“I’ll come again next weekend,” Ryuji promises his mother. They’re both standing in the doorway of her house, and it’s obvious that she’s reluctant to let him leave. “I gotta get back to Akira.”

At the mention of _the boyfriend_ she immediately changes her tune, “Sorry, sorry! I forgot. Go on. He’s probably waiting up for you.”

“I’ll try to bring him by soon. He’s gotta build up to it.”

“Please do. I want to meet him.”

Ryuji hugs her again, just in case.

The memories from last night are still fresh inside his mind. The first part of the evening was raw and difficult. Ryuji recounted his long adventure in detail, and he answered questions as they came up. Explaining his werewolfism and Akira being a vampire turned out to be the least difficult. His mother was accepting of everything, glad to have him back in whatever capacity she could.

When he finished, the mood lightened, and they enjoyed a relatively normal New Year’s Eve. They ate food and watched the countdown on TV. Ann and Shiho kissed at midnight, making Ryuji jealous. This lead to him accidentally outing himself, not as Akira’s close friend, but as his boyfriend. His mother took this set of news with incredible stride. Though she did force him to give her details, no less nosy than Ann had been.

And the rest feels like a blur because as much as he didn’t want to do it, Ryuji eventually fell asleep. The emotional roller coaster had taken its toll on him.

Now his day with his mother is up and it’s time to return home. He tries not to be disappointed, reminding himself that he can always come back. He can visit as much as he wants to.

“See you soon, Ma,” Ryuji tells her, placing a soft kiss on her cheek.

“Come back soon,” she urges him.

“I will.”

* * *

“Thanks again for planning that,” Ryuji says as they arrive at the empty parking lot used for the drop off place. They get out of the car and Ryuji hugs both women in turn.

“Wasn’t as bad as you thought,” Shiho says, poking him playfully in the sides. “Both you and Ann were so stressed about it, but I knew it would be okay.”

“I was not stressed about it,” Ann protests, but Ryuji can tell by the way she’s scowling that Shiho’s right. “Now you can visit her any time you want to.”

“I will, thank you,” Ryuji turns towards the treeline and sighs, smiling in excitement. He can’t wait to tell Akira about how it went. “...That’s weird. He’s normally here before we are.”

“There was a lot of snow last night. It could be making it take longer for him to get here,” Shiho suggests, coming up with Ann to wait at Ryuji’s side.

“It shouldn’t be a problem. He can practically walk on top of the snow without it breaking...”

“Really?” Ann asks, sounding impressed. “Remind him to show us some time.”

“I will,” Ryuji laughs, though it sounds hollow, even to his own ears. “I’m going to walk home. I’ll probably run into him halfway or something.”

“Are you sure? We don’t mind waiting.”

“Nah, you guys go. Enjoy the rest of your New Year.”

“You too,” Ann murmurs reluctantly. “See you in a couple of days.”

“Yeah,” Ryuji jogs towards the edge of the woods, turns back to wave, and then starts running. For a werewolf, the trip from town to camper takes about an hour. It seems to stretch on and on, even when he’s in parts of the forest that are familiar. Past the lake and the river, through the clearing where the wild grapes were growing, beyond the snares, and-

“Akira?” Ryuji calls out, voice echoing in the small space. He doesn’t pick up on any movement or sound, and a hollow feeling forms inside his stomach. He knows Akira isn’t here, but he checks the camper anyway. “Yo, I’m home! Are you in here?”

On the table, folded into a perfect square, is a note.

Ryuji doesn’t read it, merely snatches it up and leaves. He already knows that Akira wouldn’t have left the camper directly. It would have been too easy to track his scent through the woods. Instead, Ryuji heads back along the trail leading to town, the one he took to get home. It’s where Akira’s scent is strongest, but that’s a given. The two of them have been taking that route for days, something Ryuji is certain Akira was counting on.

“I don’t fucking get it,” Ryuji spits, speaking to no one but himself and maybe the trees. “Why the hell would he up and leave like this?! I thought we talked! We were good!”

Blind with rage, he throws out a fist towards the trunk of a tall pine. Punching something, as caveman and primitive as that behavior is, always seems to help. Except this time, before his skin can make contact with wood, he stops, and stares. Sharp claws extend out from his fingertips, or what should be his fingertips. Instead, he’s staring at the hand of a beast.

The sight is so jarring that he staggers, tripping over himself in panic. A stone buried beneath the snow catches him, or rather he lands on it and loses his breath. Winded and dizzy he lies still for a few minutes, waiting for the pain between his shoulders to fade. He glances at his arm, pleased to see that it’s mostly gone back to normal. His claws take longer.

A different kind of pain sets up home inside Ryuji’s chest, one that has nothing to do with the rock at his back. He already knows that he won’t be able to find Akira. The vampire is too cunning to leave behind any kind of trace that could be followed. He’s been running away for centuries.

It’s only then that Ryuji remembers the note still clutched inside his hand. He sits up so he can smooth the paper out in his lap.

_I know you’re angry, so close your eyes and take a deep breath._

Ryuji rolls his eyes instead. Akira knows him too well sometimes.

_I didn’t lie to you when I said I wanted to live with you in the human world. There is nothing I want more than that, but you have to understand that it’s not that simple. You and I are very different and ultimately that’s what drove me to this decision._

_Takemi once told me that you and I would never be able to stay together, and in some ways, she was right. The way I am now, I can’t see myself being with you. I selfishly tried to keep you to myself and because of that, you struggled. I don’t have proof, but I might be the reason your transformations lasted longer than they should have. And for a while, I was okay with that. I was fine knowing that someday you might never go back to being human. It meant that I wouldn’t have to worry about you choosing to leave me. I’m so ashamed of that._

_My long years alone have made it difficult for me to have a healthy level of distance in our relationship. I was panicking. I had started to feel like I had lost you. Everything the human world offered seemed so much more than I could offer. I couldn’t easily share you, not when I felt that way. There lies the problem. You are not mine, at least not in a sense that implies ownership. There are other people who love you. You deserve to have other relationships outside of me. To thrive with them and to grow. In many ways, they’re your cure for your werewolfism._

_Family, friendship, your unfailing ability to be kind, those are the things that make you human._

_Those are the things I currently lack._

_This isn’t a permanent goodbye, because I can’t tell myself that I won’t be tempted to return. Before I do though, I want to work on becoming a better person. I know my leaving will come as a shock, will hurt you. I wish there was an easier way. You told me one time that just because something hurts, doesn’t mean that it’s bad. I hope you can remember those words now. Work through the pain to get the life you deserve._

_Out of everyone I’ve met over the years, you were the one who made me feel most human. I’ll never be able to repay you for that._

_I’m so sorry. I wish it could be different._

_I love you._

_-Akira_

Ryuji closes his eyes.

It’s over.  
  
* * *   
  
Ryuji doesn’t go back.

Instead, he moves back into his room at his mother’s house. Adjusting to living in the human world again takes time. Though there’s something to be said about hot showers and pancake breakfasts. He lives quietly, taking on the identity of ‘Ryuji’s cousin’ who’s come to stay with his mother for a while. It’s easier to stay dead until he’s certain he can handle coming back to life.

He bleaches his hair, decides he doesn’t like it and goes through several color changes. First red, then blue, green, and pink. Then back to black when it becomes boring. He can’t drive without an ID, so Ann and Shiho get him a bike. A lot of his days are spent riding around town and to the library. He checks out every book he can find on werewolves and vampires. Ryuji was never much of a bookworm before, but now he can’t put them down. Sometimes when he’s reading about a particular vampire incident on X day of X year, he imagines that Akira was there.

Full moons he takes up at the lake. It’s the place where his beast is most comfortable and where he feels safest. Sometimes Ryuji wakes up outside the camper, and those shifts are the hardest. He spends hours afterward sitting by the run down campfire, gazing around and remembering. Weeds grow up all over what used to be his front yard. The rack Ryuji used to dry herbs fell down at some point, and mushrooms have grown out of the woodpile.

He can’t bring himself to go inside the camper. There are too many memories inside it. Without Akira to share them with, it feels completely pointless.

Without Akira, a lot of things feel pointless, but he presses on.  
  
* * *

“What’re you takin’ me into a coffee shop for?” Ryuji has been in a foul mood for most of the morning, and Ann’s suggestion they go out isn’t helping. “I don’t even like coffee.”

“You’ll like the kind they serve at Le Blanc,” Ann insists. He can hear her heart racing inside her chest, she’s all worked up about something. Surely the drinks at this particular shop can’t be good enough to give her palpitations. Right? He’s even less excited when they pull up in front of the place, it looks pretty shabby from the outside. “Come on, let’s go in.”

“If you want to that badly.”

The roasted, almost burnt smell of espresso assaults them as they walk in. It mingles with the more subtle spices of the curry advertised on the sign. The inside is tidy at least, with booths on the left and a long bar on the right. The only person Ryuji sees is an employee, or maybe the manager? A thin older man with a deep scowl on his face.

 _Great customer service,_ Ryuji thinks, already annoyed. Ann is oblivious as she takes a seat at the bar, putting in an order.

“There _is_ a reason I wanted to come here, ya know,” Ann tells him as he sits beside her. “Stop giving me that look.”

“I don’t have a look,” Ryuji protests. The owner of the shop places coffee down for Ann and water for Ryuji.

“I wanted you to meet Sojiro.”

“You mean this guy?”

“Yes, this guy,” the man grumbles. “My name is Sojiro Sakura.”

For just a fraction of a second, the man’s eyes catch the light, glinting yellow.

“Oh my god,” Ryuji whispers, looking at Ann with a scandalized expression. “He’s a-”

“Werewolf? Yes,” Sojiro says. He pulls up his right sleeve to reveal deep scars, shorter and torn, unlike the long ones that Ryuji has. A bite instead of a scratch, and a pretty vicious one by the look of it. “My adoptive daughter Futaba was born a werewolf.”

“Born? Is that even possible?”

“Apparently,” Sojiro says with a shrug of his slender shoulders. “I found her on the side of the road. A car had hit her mother. There was nothing we could do, so I took her in. I didn’t realize what she was, and a couple of weeks later when the moon rose-”

“She bit you,” Ryuji finishes in awe.

“Did’ya have to tell my whole backstory like that?” An unexpected voice interrupts the conversation. When Ryuji turns to look, a short redheaded woman is seated in one of the booths. She was so quiet that he hadn’t even noticed her there before.

“This is Futaba,” Ann introduces. “She’s a couple years younger than we are, but she’s been a werewolf her entire life. I thought maybe she could help you with stuff.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Ryuji greets, extending a hand. Futaba eyes it warily. “I’m Ryuji Sakamoto.”  
  
“Futaba,” she murmurs meekly, standing up to shake his hand. Despite her earlier cheeky attitude, she appears to be shy.

“Oh yeah, there’s one more person you should meet,” Ann says, glancing towards a narrow set of stairs. They lead up into what must be the cafe’s storage attic. “Futaba, can you go up and get him?”

“Yep! I’ll be right back.”

“Now do you see why I brought you here?” Ann elbows Ryuji in the side and it forces a smile out of him.

“Yeah, okay, I get it,” Ryuji rolls his eyes, but his mood is already better. “So is this other guy a werewolf too?”

“No, he’s a vampire.”

Before Ryuji can even react, a familiar scent wafts down the stairs. Oakwood, flowers, a hint of ash.

I can’t be.

But it is.

“Akira,” Ryuji whispers, though he doesn’t turn his head to look. His heart is slamming inside his chest and his face feels hot. Should he be happy? Mad? His entire body is numb with shock. It’s something like the way he felt meeting his mother again.

“You gonna sit there ignoring me?” Akira asks him, voice as smooth and warm as it always was. Finally, Ryuji glances up and without even meaning to, he smiles. Akira grins back at him, all fangs and perfect teeth and... Glasses? “Come upstairs and talk to me.”

“Sure,” Ryuji rises out of his chair. He follows Akira up into what looks like a little bedroom. Akira’s maybe? “What is this place?”

“It’s where I live.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t sound so disappointed,” Akira takes a seat in a desk chair, gesturing for Ryuji to sit down on a small loveseat. “I’m sorry, this must be confusing for you.”

“You have no effin’ idea,” Ryuji grumbles, sitting down. “Why-... I mean... Where?”

“I’ve been in town here.”

“This whole time?!”

“Most of it, yes,” Akira admits. “I couldn’t completely leave, though I tried at first...”

“And uh, did it help? Goin’ away...” Ryuji isn’t sure he wants to know but feels he has to ask.

“I’m in a much better headspace.”

“Me too. Kind of.”

“Look, Ryuji-”

“Me first,” Ryuji interrupts, pointing to the glasses on Akira’s face. “What are those for?”

“These?” Akira slips the frames off. “Futaba made them for me. They protect my eyes from the sun, that way I can work in the cafe without it bothering me as much.”

“Lemme see.”

The lenses look ordinary, but when Ryuji looks through them, it’s like being in a dark room.

“Whoa, these are badass,” Ryuji exclaims, offering them back. “I get it, so you work here.”

“And live here,” Akira corrects. “As a human, or as close as I can be.”

“What about blood? What do you do for that?”

“I’ve got a connection. A vampire from my past, Akechi, remember? I guess whatever I said about going dry off of live human blood struck a chord with him. He works for a hospital if you can believe that.”

“So you uh, drink from the patients, or...?” Ryuji narrows his eyes, confused.

“No, from the blood supply,” Akira says, beginning to laugh. “The bagged blood.”

Ryuji’s face flushes in embarrassment, “Oh.”

“It’s not as good as fresh, but I get by.”

“Do ever miss mine?”

“All the time,” Akira says with a little sigh. “Which, by the way, is not why Ann brought you here. She actually thought you might want a job.”

“A job? Here? With you?”

“Sojiro is looking to cut back on the number of hours he spends working, so we need someone to help out. Are you interested?”

“H-Hell yeah I am. I’ve been wantin’ to make some money. I don’t know anything about coffee, but...”

“I can teach you, but Ryuji, this is only if you’re comfortable with it,” Akira’s face falls a bit and he averts it away. “I still have feelings for you, just to preface. I don’t want you to feel weird about it.”

“I don’t,” Ryuji assures him, “Because, I still got feelings for you too.”

Akira looks up, his eyes wide with surprise.

“Look, man, I don’t know where we’ll go from here. Maybe we’ll be a thing again, maybe we won’t, but I sure as hell want the job.”

Akira huffs in amusement, “Then it’s yours.”

“I’m glad to see you again.”

“Me too. I’ve missed you.”  
  
“Are you crying?” Akira teases, forcing Ryuji to punch him in the shoulder.

Moisture clouds his vision as he shoots back, “Of course not.”  
  
* * * 

“You don't think we're too old to go out on Halloween, right?” Ryuji wonders, inspecting himself in a mirror. He's going as a zombie, donning costume makeup that his mom found for him on the internet. It certainly looks creepy enough, especially with the torn jeans he's wearing. His werewolf scars are out on display, another part of his costume. 

Akira walks up behind him to kiss his neck, humming in approval, “ _I'm_ too old but you should be okay.” 

“You're too old for everything,” Ryuji insists, leaning back against Akira's chest.  
  
They decided to start dating again one month ago, and this time Ryuji is certain that it's going to stick. Both of them are living as close to human as they can get and taking things slow. With the support of their friends and family, everything is working out well. “Can't believe Boss let us have the cafe for a party. He acts like he thinks we're going to burn it down on a normal workday.” 

“You did catch the curry on fire that one time.” 

“I was just trying to make it spicy!” 

“Stop,” Akira says around a laugh, burying his face against Ryuji's shoulder. “You're making me want to stay home.” 

“We definitely can't do anything like that,” Ryuji sighs, reaching up to ruffle Akira's hair. “Not under the same roof as my mom, anyway.” 

“After the party at Le Blanc?” 

“Definitely.” 

“Are you guys ready yet?” Ryuji's mother calls from the hallway. “Ann wanted to get some photos of you two before you head out.” 

“We'll be right there,” Ryuji calls back. He offers his hand to Akira, “It's showtime.” 

Akira and Ryuji move out into the living room. Ann and Shiho are there, with Ann dressed up as a black cat and Shiho like a witch. Futaba's sitting on the couch with Ryuji's mom, stealing candy from her candy bowl. She's all dressed up like some kind of Egyptian princess. 

“Wow! You guys look awesome!” Ryuji exclaims, examining their costumes in turn. “I'm goin' as a zombie, if you couldn't tell.” 

“Okay,” Ann says, inspecting both Ryuji and Akira's costumes. She holds up her phone to snap a quick shot of them together. “Zombie I get, but what's Akira supposed to be?” 

“You're never gonna guess.” 

Akira grins widely as he announces, “I'm going as a vampire.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And they lived happily ever after! 
> 
> For real this time! 
> 
> ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
> 
> Thanks for reading everyone! I'm not very skilled at writing small short stories like this and there's a lot more I wish I could have put in it, but I'm satisfied with the outcome. I don't know why in every one of my fics Akira ends up leaving Ryuji for a while. I just think that he's more of the type who's self-sacrificing, ready to leave if he thinks it's what's best for Ryuji. Whereas Ryuji is the opposite, desperately clinging, oblivious. It always makes for a fun dynamic for them. (And inevitably Ryuji always forgives Akira.) 
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it! Thank you to everyone who's come by to comment/kudo/lurk. Now on to the next one!  
> (Or maybe I'll just man up and update one of my other fics.)


End file.
